A Good Marriage(84)
“Maybe you should host my party then.” Maude smiled tearfully. “Speaking of the party, I should be getting home. There are deliveries coming.”
“Will you be okay?” Amanda asked. “Do you want one of us to come with you?”
“No, no,” Maude said. “I must seem spectacularly unhinged, but I’ll be fine. I think I just need some time to myself.”
“You’re sure?” Sarah pressed.
“Yes,” Maude said, taking a deep breath as she stood. “I promise.”
Amanda and Sarah watched as Maude gathered her things and left. They did not speak again until Maude was safely out of sight.
“God, what the fuck is wrong with me?” Sarah shook her head. “Peeper porn? I am such an asshole. It’s because I’m exhausted. Fucking Kerry.”
“Kerry?” Amanda asked.
Sarah looked startled by the question. “Oh, an argument. It was silly. Too much wine more than anything,” she said. “I was just mad about that fairy tale Kerry told about his stepfather.”
“Fairy tale?” Amanda asked.
“Kerry’s stepfather never broke his arm, though according to Kerry he was quite the jerk once upon a time,” she scoffed. “Anyway Kerry felt like everybody was gawking at you, and he didn’t want you to feel bad.”
“Oh,” Amanda said, indeed feeling bad. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. That was only how the fight started, anyway … it blew up from there.” Sarah waved her hand. “But that’s a discussion for another time. Right now, poor Maude is what matters. I can’t believe I made her feel worse.”
“No, no,” Amanda said, even though she was pretty sure that Sarah had made it worse.
“I’ll call her later and check in.”
“Can I ask you something totally unrelated?” Amanda began tentatively. She should have probably let the conversation go on a little longer before changing the subject. But she couldn’t bear to wait anymore. “It’s about that email you received from Country Day. About Will?”
“You mean the one I decided to ignore because I wanted to get on with the business of enjoying my kid-free summer? Another example of my sterling judgment. Sure, why not? Ask away.”
“We got a similar one about Case,” Amanda said. “A couple of them actually. But I overlooked them, so I didn’t respond.”
“Well, at least you accidentally didn’t respond, instead of intentionally not responding like me.”
“Will the school hold it against Case?” Amanda asked. “That I didn’t answer and set up the meeting?”
“Absolutely not. Especially since the meeting was probably about nothing. All that school does is set up meetings. I get it. Bad things have happened because some other schools around here were asleep at the wheel. But how about a happy medium. Honestly, a kid stubs their toe and Brooklyn Country Day wants to have a meeting between you, the kid, and the offending piece of furniture. If Case was having an actual problem, they would have called you.”
“They would?” Amanda asked.
“Definitely,” Sarah went on. “When that school really wants to find you, they hunt you down. Watch what happens if you’re late with a tuition bill.”
Amanda smiled. She felt genuinely relieved. “Oh, good, then maybe it’s not serious.”
“One hundred percent it’s absolutely not serious. I’d put it out of your mind completely. Pretend you never even got it. Like me.” Sarah was quiet then, her face grave as she looked toward the exit. “Trust me, ignorance sometimes really is bliss.”
KRELL INDUSTRIES
CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION
Attorney-Client Work Product
Privileged & Confidential
July 1
To: Brooklyn Country Day Board of Directors From: Krell Industries Subject: Data Breach & Cyber Incident Investigation—Progress Report Interview Summaries: SUBJECT FAMILY 0005: Does not know whether they received a conference request from Brooklyn Country Day due to shared family email. Will inquire of all family members once they have returned from camp.
SUBJECT FAMILY 0006: Received Brooklyn Country Day conference scheduling request but did not reply. Did receive other suspicious emails from different household accounts. May have responded.
SUBJECT FAMILY 0016: Received Brooklyn Country Day conference scheduling request and scheduled conference. A later message indicated that conference had been canceled and would be rescheduled.
PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS:
Brooklyn Country Day systems were compromised on or about April 30. At that time, extensive personal information about Brooklyn Country Day families was gathered, including children’s names, family emails, and other contact information. Access was obtained to the personal computers of individual families once they interacted with a counterfeit conference scheduling form. If a conference was scheduled it would subsequently be canceled with an automated follow-up email. If this access attempt failed, a second attempt was made using an alternate forged account. Based on syntactical variation and disparate IP locations, it appears likely that several individuals are responsible for the specific exchanges with subject families.