After a short night of next to no sleep and utter confusion as to what the hell was truly going on, Liz and Jeannie readied themselves to go see Owen.

"I still don't know what to think," Liz said as she put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway. "It just doesn't seem real. Or possible."

"I know," Jeannie sighed. "This whole thing is just a mess. I don't know how I got from Jesse to all of this. And how it involves Dad and some dead girl." She shook her head.

Just then, Jeannie's phone buzzed with an incoming call. It was the police officer, Watts, who had been handling the case against Brandon.

Jeannie answered, putting the call on speaker.

"Jeannie, hi. It's Officer Watts. Is this a good time?" Watt's asked.

"Yes," Jeannie responded. "We are just on the way to the attorney's now."

"Good, then you can tell him that Brandon gave us all the information we will need to prosecute Jesse. Seems this is something he's done before. He's even been involved in selling this type of information on the Dark Web, but that's not all...he's been involved in human trafficking as well."

Liz gasped. "Babydoll, that could've been you!"

"Wow," Jeannie replied into the phone. "That's a lot of info...we'll pass it on to Owen." Jeannie's expression was blank.

"Give him my number, I'd be happy to talk with him," Watts said. "We'll be in touch. Don't be afraid to reach out if something comes up."

"Thank you, Officer." Jeannie ended the call.

"Human trafficking, wow..." Jeannie's face still reflected the shock she felt. "God, that's so scary!"

"You got lucky, Jean," Liz said somberly. "It hurt, but it's a good thing he went ghost on you."

"I guess..." Jeannie turned to look out the window.


---


Liz and Jeannie walked back to the car after a very positive meeting with Owen.

"With this and what the police have, it looks like we have a very strong case against Jesse and his slimy cousin." Liz smiled.

"And someone got a nice dinner date out of it, too," Jeannie raised her eyebrow at her mother. "I think Owen really likes you."

"We've only met for coffee a few times, and well, there's the online stuff," Liz giggled. "I guess I got pretty lucky with all of that, all things considered." Liz shook her head.

"You sure did." Jeannie opened the passenger side door and slid in. "But now you get a date-date out of it! He's cute too, Mom!" Jeannie smiled.

"Yeah, he is." Liz walked around to the driver's side and got in. "I'll always love your dad, but it's been years now. Maybe it's time to move on." She started the car.

"You know, Mom, I once read something that said we don't actually move on--we just move forward. I don't know why, but that made sense to me. Maybe you're just ready to move forward."

Liz turned to smile at her daughter. "You can be really wise, Babydoll," she said before putting the car in gear and driving off.