JDH by AU "Together"

John sat behind the wheel of his jeep, struggling along the uneven road that wound between tall trees and dense bushes. The city was behind him, and beyond lay a bumpy road that made the car bounce, and the place Sasha had indicated, sending him the coordinates.

Harris gripped the steering wheel, feeling the rubber scrape against the rocks, the dust kicked up by the tires settling on the windshield in a thin gray film. He hated this trip. He hated the dust, he hated the heat, he hated the fact that he was forced to drive to this remote place at all because of some unexpected "relative" his sister had insistently asked him to visit. The words of the will, spoken with the cold precision of a notary, still echoed in his head...

"The third heir"—the phrase wouldn't leave him. He wasn't sure what he was feeling: anger, fear, or simply curiosity. How could their late father, Robert, who had left behind a fortune, suddenly declare the existence of another son in his will?

Finally, the jeep pulled up a small hill, and the view opened up: endless fields, yellowed by the sun, with sparse, gnarled trees that seemed to have grown here in defiance of all the laws of nature. And in the distance, an old farmhouse. A house with peeling paint, a sagging fence. A barn that seemed to stand on nothing but God's word.

“This is civilization,” Harris mutters sarcastically, parking at the gate.

He stepped out of the car, and a hot wind immediately stung his face. The air smelled of hay, livestock, and something musty. John adjusted his shirt sleeves, trying not to get them dirty. It would be a shame to ruin his expensive suit.

This "relative" was sitting on a bench on the porch of the house. The dusty, simple farmer's clothes held no appeal for the young scientist, but his face... It was as if it were his reflection—the same chin, the same eyes, but a different color.

"Well, hello. And you, apparently, are the 'unexpected heir,'" John said coldly.