The Capo’s Daughter Needs No Permission Chapter 33
After the cruise, I went back to California and started my new job.
On my first day, my supervisor sent over the project requirements for the education sector client.
The current system allowed parents, guardians, and internal administrators to claim financial aid on a student’s behalf.
If someone signed for a student, the system only recorded the last name entered.
There was no verification step to confirm whether the applicant had actually consented.
I stopped on that page.
“This needs to change.”
A teammate asked, “Change it so no one can claim funds on someone else’s behalf?”
“Minors can still have guardian authorization.”
“But for adult applicants, the money can only be disbursed to an account they personally confirm. Any proxy handling has to go through dual authorization, with the original applicant notified simultaneously.”
“What about internal administrators?”
“They shouldn’t be able to overwrite the authorization record, either.”
The conference room went quiet for a moment.
Someone pointed out that would slow down the process.
I thought of the day my mother took the education fund check while my father sat right there in the living room.
Everyone had assumed that one family member signing for another was no big deal.
Right up until my name turned into a Gucci bag.
“Efficiency shouldn’t be built on the applicant’s ignorance.”
I added a new rule to the design.
Every time someone viewed, changed, processed, or revoked an application, the action had to be logged in a way that no administrator could delete.
My supervisor didn’t agree immediately.
“The client may not like that.”
“Then let the client say it plainly.”
“Do they want to protect the recipient, or the convenience of the administrators?”
In the end, the rule stayed.
The first round of testing for the new system required a complete case file.
I didn’t invent one.
I pulled out my own: the education fund notice, the forged signature, the time my mother transferred the money back, and the final investigation result.
Every name and Family identifier was scrubbed.
Only four points remained on the screen.
Application submitted.
Claim forged by proxy.
Funds withdrawn.
Applicant informed only after the fact.
The test program flashed red at the second step.
If this system had been in place four years ago, that check would never have left the fund’s account.
I stared at the red warning for a long time.
I wasn’t trying to recover the five thousand dollars for my eighteen-year-old self.
That money had already been returned.
I just wanted the next person whose name was on an application form to not need fifty-eight phone calls and a public timeline to prove that what belonged to them was theirs.