From the time that she was conceived, Collins Eveline Sinclair's life was built on a guilded tower of lies. Her mother, Eleanor Collins Sinclair, was an intelligent and beautiful woman with lofty political ambitions when she married Robert Sinclair, the heir and future CEO of Sinclair Real Estate Group, one of the largest real estate development companies in San Francisco. It was three years after their wedding when Elizabeth had the opportunity to move from California to Washington D.C. to be an aide to the Vice President, who she had previously worked for when he was a Senator and later on his failed presidential campaign. The separation was hard on the couple especially after Eleanor, who had originally promised it would only be for a year, decided to stay on for the entire term. While they made an effort to travel to one another as much as possible, it wasn't out of the ordinary for months to go by without being able to see each other due to the heavy demands of their jobs.

With the distance and strain on their marriage, it was not a surprise when Eleanor began an affair with Georgios Sorokos, the Greek ambassador to the United States. He was a married with children but Eleanor fell in love and he claimed to love her back, promising that they could leave their spouses when the time was right. The affair continued for nearly two years when Eleanor discovered she was pregnant with Georgios' child, who was furious when he found out. He accused Eleanor of getting pregnant on purpose to force him into leaving his wife and ordered her to get rid of the child because he was never going to be with her. A devastated Eleanor quit her job in the White House and moved back to California with her tail between her legs, passing the pregnancy off as Robert's and hoping that Georgios would eventually change his mind.

Collins was born on a particular cold day in February and her arrival only brought joy in Robert, the man she would grow up believing was her father. Eleanor struggled to bond with her daughter, who she viewed as a constant reminder of the love she lost, and only stayed home a month before she was back to work in the California political scene and leaving the childcare up to a team of nannies. Collins wasn't an easy child, demanding constant attention that she would get any way she could which her father dealt with by spoiling her rotten while her mother dealt with it by refusing to give her any attention. She was often defiant, refusing to following rules whether they came from her parents or nannies or teachers at school.

As she grew older, Collins’ issues got worse as her defiance was joined by recklessness and a charming but manipulative personality. She was nearly kicked out of private school for a whole slew of reasons - showing up to school drunk, orchestrating a cheating ring, and being caught in an intimate situation with another classmate in a supply closet. But her parents were always there to throw money at whatever problems she had caused to make it disappear especially after their influence began to rise with Robert being named CEO of Sinclair Real Estate Group following his father's retirement and Eleanor being elected to the Senate.

When it came time for college, Collins refused to go and tried to convince her parents to let her spend the next few years finding herself but even her more agreeable father refused. She was given an ultimatum - go to college, get a degree, and they'll release her trust fund to her when she graduates or don't go and they'll cut her off completely. She chose the former and enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, thanks to a sizable donation from her parents, and majored in Art History, a program that she knew would infuriate her mother. While she could have spent her four years in Los Angeles buckling down and finding a real purpose in life, Collins opted to focus on making friends, partying her nights away, doing just enough work to pass her classes, and eventually meeting the boy she would refer to as her first and only love.

Her parents made good on their deal after graduation and Collins made an effort to be a functioning member of society, moving back to San Francisco. She tried working a real job - a few months as an assistant in a gallery, less than two weeks on her mother's reelection campaign, and a full year as an assistant to a personal stylist- but she quickly realized that working wasn't for her at least not until she discovered she wanted to do with the rest of her life. So for the last three years, Collins has been living off her trust fund and her parent's money and focusing solely on the things that bring her pleasure - partying, shopping, dating, and getting into as much trouble as possible.