Eleanor never really stood a chance.
Her mother was in love with a married man and a little bit crazy. And even though Eleanor's tired mother hated children, she was convinced that he would love her too if they just had a child together.
That's how Eleanor was born. And when Eleanor didn't work, when he didn't leave his wife, she decided that one baby wasn't enough and so she had another. And that's how Casey was born.
When she realized that having his children wasn't going to make him fall in love with her, she remembered just how badly she hated children.
Eleanor and Casey were suddenly thrown aside by their broken-hearted mother; and then their father, being the married man that he was, completely denied their existence. Which left 8-year-old Eleanor and newborn baby Casey in foster care, hidden from the world like a blemish.
As Eleanor gets older, she is forced to protect her brother from the cruel world that they live in. She doesn't want him to grow up like she did, feeling like a thrown away misfit. Eleanor learns that she needs to do whatever it takes to get her brother a better life. And that's when the trouble starts for her.
By the time that Eleanor turns 22, she has been consumed by a world of lies, money, and sex. Convinced that doing the wrong thing is okay for the right reasons, Eleanor is used to living with two separate identities. When it all starts to catch up with her, Eleanor has to figure out how she is going to make it out of the mess that she's created.
Poor girl. She never really stood a chance.