Seeing Lily Bankston talking to her, Elly Campbell immediately approached, nodding her head respectfully, "Yes Aunt Lily, it’s me."
She had heard her grandmother say that Ms. Bankston once gave up an invitation from Harvard University to take care of Adam and Lily Jones, choosing instead to stay by their side as a motherly figure.
Just for this, Elly held her in high regard.
Lily Bankston looked at her, smiling weakly and said, "Adam told me that his wife was waiting for him at home, that he would handle everything here and then return to be with you, but unexpectedly..."
At this point, Lily Bankston couldn’t go on, her voice caught in her throat, making her already low voice completely inaudible.
Upon hearing this, Elly, who had been holding back her tears, felt her eyes immediately sting with tears.
She bit her lower lip and after a long time, she managed to suppress the surging emotions, forcing a smile and said:
"He’s always like that..."
Treating me like a child, always thinking he needs to take care of me personally before he can feel at ease.
She couldn’t bring herself to voice that sentence, keeping it suppressed in her heart.
Since Lily Bankston was seriously injured and should not talk too much, Elly and the Old Lady didn’t stay in the hospital room for too long before leaving.
The most direct impact of Adam Jones’ disappearance was on Jones’s stock prices; once the news of Adam falling into the water was out, the stocks would definitely plummet.
Therefore, Elly immediately had someone block the news that the person who had fallen into the water was Adam, and for the moment, there was no news about any Jones executive’s unexpected disappearance.
At the moment, with Adam missing, Elly knew that she must not panic, because if she did, then Jones would be truly finished.
Several days of continuous dredging efforts followed, but still they were not able to find Adam.
The area under the highway bridge is a branch of Massachusetts Bay; if Adam’s whereabouts were not found quickly, if his body was carried to the sea and even to the Atlantic Ocean, then in such a vast area, it would be even harder to find him.
Even if he were found, what are the chances he would still be alive by then?
Elly dared not think further, nor did she even have the courage to consider such consequences.
After several more days of continuous search with no results, the American police halted their search, suggesting that given the high water currents on the day of the accident, it was very likely that Adam had been washed out of Massachusetts Bay.
Moreover, given the cold winter weather, even if Adam were found, he would likely be long dead; they did not want to continue wasting resources.
In the end, only Jones’s side continued the search, but every time news came, it dashed the hopes of the Old Lady and Elly.
After countless fruitless searches, the despair on Elly’s face deepened, yet she still couldn’t let herself collapse.
She bowed her head, touching her belly which was slightly bulging, and said hoarsely:
"Adam Jones, you left me alone when William was born, and now, you are leaving me alone again. In our next life, I hope never to see you again."
Her voice, hoarse and helpless, tears moistened her eyes in an angle others couldn’t see.
It had been half a month since Adam Jones disappeared, and the dredging team’s work had extended from the city to the tributaries of Massachusetts Bay, but still, there was no sign of Adam.