Jane/Helen Burns

Helen Burns is placed in foster care after her unknown mother abandons her when she is just three years old. She spends most of her childhood with a cruel man named Mr. Brock who has several foster-children and treats them all horribly. When her foster-sister, Jane, gets sick with pneumonia, Jane begs Mr. Brock to take her to the doctor, but he refuses. Soon after, Jane dies in Helen’s arms. Helen is so angry that when Mr. Brock has a heart attack in front of her, she does not fetch him his pills or call for an ambulance. Instead, she waits and watches as he dies.

After that, Helen leaves Phoenix and changes her name to Jane. She gets moved around to different group homes and meets John at one of them. Once she is an adult, she moves to Birmingham and reconnects with John...