Uncle

Ever since Gina's parents, the previous heads of the Orange Family, had passed away.

Gina had barely graduated from college when she came to America to take over the mess her parents had left behind.

That mess included not only the company, which had still been struggling to establish itself in America, but also her younger brother, who had been a good-for-nothing since childhood.

At first, when her younger brother Dragan started going astray, Gina had tried to set him straight.

While keeping a strict eye on him, she had also put him to work at the company.

But Dragan hadn't changed for the better. Instead, he'd gotten into gambling. After several failed attempts to talk sense into him, he'd even hidden orders from the company and secretly embezzled its funds.

Completely fed up with him, Gina had kicked him out of the company without hesitation. She'd given him a sum of money and left him to fend for himself.

After that, in Luca's memories of his predecessor, the few times he'd seen his worthless uncle, Dragan had come to the house begging for money and help.

But for the past two years, Luca hadn't seen him at all. He had no idea what methods his mother, Gina, had used to keep him away.

Now, it seemed Dragan hadn't just gotten into gambling. He'd even started using drugs.

"Why are you here?!"

It wasn't Luca who spoke, but Shamira, standing beside him with a hostile look in her eyes.

She also stepped forward, shielding Luca behind her.

Clearly, Shamira knew exactly what the man before them was like.

Dragan knew Shamira as well. When he noticed the undisguised disgust on her face, a nameless fury surged through him, but he quickly suppressed it.

"Shamira! Don't forget that I'm an Orange, too. Given the situation, of course I'd come to check on Luca."

As he spoke, Dragan glanced at Luca's empty sleeve and the tombstone behind him.

Noticing the contempt in Dragan's eyes, Shamira, who had watched Luca grow up, immediately flushed with anger.

Luca, who had also noticed Dragan's gaze, showed little reaction.

He'd gotten carried away during the Battle of New York and had kicked his mechanical prosthesis away like a ball.

His parents had paid a fortune to have that prosthetic arm specially made for him at Transia, a company that worked with the Department of Defense and had a laboratory dedicated to exoskeletons.

It still wasn't as dexterous as a real arm, but it was already an exceptionally "sci-fi" prosthesis.

Luca could get an ordinary artificial hand to use in the meantime, but it would only make him look more normal. It wouldn't do much to make his daily life easier.

So he'd decided not to get a new prosthesis just yet and was patiently waiting for Transia to make him a replacement.

Luca didn't care about being disabled, and he certainly wasn't going to get angry over other people's opinions.

He gently held back Shamira, who looked ready to lash out, then turned his calm gaze toward his good-for-nothing uncle and spoke coolly.

"Uncle? I suppose I can still call you that. Thank you for coming to my father's funeral."

"But if I remember correctly, Mother cut ties with you a long time ago. As for Aunt Shamira, I think she's far more trustworthy than certain people."

Hearing Luca's words, Dragan straightened up again.

He adjusted his collar and put on a fake air of concern for his nephew.

"Kid, New York State law doesn't recognize the severing of family ties."

"Besides, blood is thicker than water. With my sister in this state, I, her brother, naturally have to step in and look after you."

As he spoke, Dragan pointed his chin at Shamira in a provocative gesture.

"Wasn't Gina just injured and unconscious?"

"Is he here to seize control?"

"This guy really thinks a lot of himself, doesn't he?"

The guests began whispering among themselves again.

Clearly, most of them looked down on Dragan, who was obviously a bad sort.

Only Dragan himself seemed pleased, surveying the guests with smug satisfaction.

Shamira seemed worried that Luca was too young to understand what Dragan was like, and was about to explain.

But before she could say anything, Luca frowned.

How did this guy find out about Gina?

Gina Orange was Luca's mother.

She had been injured and fallen unconscious during the Battle of New York. Though she had been rushed to the hospital as soon as the fighting ended, the doctors said she had likely developed Synaptic Cocooning Syndrome.

The condition was caused by repeated, high-frequency energy exposure. Abnormal proteins encased the terminal nerves in the cerebral cortex, reducing the efficiency of neural signal transmission and leaving the brain in a semi-dormant state.

The condition was already extremely rare in the medical field. The few recorded patients had only experienced slowed reactions, drowsiness, forgetfulness, and similar symptoms.

But after the Battle of New York, more than a dozen injured people had suddenly developed the same condition.

Those with mild symptoms could barely manage on their own, while those with severe symptoms had been pronounced dead after only a few days.

As for Gina, whose condition was neither mild nor severe, neither the hospital nor her team of private doctors had any effective treatment. All they could do was wait.

In fact, Luca had asked Shamira to contact Stephen Strange over the past few days—the man who would one day become Doctor Strange.

He was probably the most outstanding neurosurgeon in all of New York at the moment.

But as soon as he heard about the condition, he refused to see the doctor Shamira had asked to speak with him, citing his heavy workload. He didn't even listen to the proposed consultation fee.

Now, Luca could only follow the doctors' advice: keep to conservative treatment, stabilize the patient's condition, and hope a new treatment would become available.

Still, almost no one knew about this yet.

Dragan had been gone for nearly two years. He was hooked on gambling and drugs, and was utterly useless. So where had he heard the news?

Seeing that the situation might get out of hand, Luca immediately gave a cold order.

"Aunt Shamira, escort him out. Don't let him cause trouble at my father's funeral."

Shamira stepped forward at once and grabbed Dragan by the shoulder, ready to lead him away.

But Dragan didn't back down. Instead, he smugly continued to taunt them.

"Hmph, kid, are you scared? The law says that if someone is... is legally incapacitated, they have to hold a new shareholders' meeting to vote on who makes the decisions."

As he spoke, Dragan's nostrils flared and his pupils contracted with excitement. His words grew increasingly jumbled.

"Don't think... um, you have absolute control. You haven't inherited those shares yet. At the shareholders' meeting, the dead and people in a vegetative state can't attend!"

"You bastard! What are you saying?!"

Shamira's eyes widened in fury. She grabbed Dragan by the collar and lifted him right off the ground.

"Gina? In a vegetative state?"

"I thought Ms. Orange was only temporarily unconscious?"

Many of the guests had business dealings with Orange Industries, and some were even company employees. At this news, they all looked at Luca in uncertainty.

Luca paid no attention to their stares. Instead, he focused on the problem in Dragan's words, his voice sharp as ice.

"The shareholders' meeting? What does that have to do with you? What makes you think you can influence the shareholders' decision?!"