A/N: This is a prologue, which you can totally skip if you like. You can figure it out along the way.
You're so brutal to those who love you, Scarlett. You take their love and hold it over their heads like a whip.
- Margaret Mitchell
In 2012 America suffered a depression, a depression like no other the country had ever faced before. And those lucky enough to get to their money before the Bank of America filed for a Chapter 7 soon found out how much their paper was worth when inflation rates started breaking graphs.
The glitter lined streets of the Upper East Side were always tarnished, Serena had known this, but never would she have expected the glitter to disappear altogether. She had no idea that Old Money could default on their mortgages. She didn't know that entire buildings could carry a foreclosure banner.
Some fared better than others. The land rich—those who could pay their rates and taxes long enough to escape the worst of the downturn—would make it out with their Manet collection intact. And there was always those precious few who knew how to make a profit out of other's misfortune.
Serena might have been alright, if the Bass jet hadn't taken a header with her Lily and Rufus on board, or if Lily's accountants were half as useful as their Stanford degrees implied. But when faced with the distressing chance of a working-class future, Serena had done what all Rhodes women do.
She married up.
E/N: I did my yearly re-watch of GWtW. So if it doesn't belong to Savage and Schwartz, it's probably the property of Margaret Mitchell.