I had chosen to not go to the Starbucks that I worked at, when I arrived there, I smoothed my shirt and took a deep breath. I swung open the door, and saw Owen and his father sitting at a table drinking coffee. I took a seat next to Owen.

"Hi Evie, good to meet you. My name is Don." His father said. I shook his hand, smiling pleasantly. Owen passed me a coffee, I took a grateful sip.

"Thank you for meeting with me." I said, setting down the drink. He nodded, pulling a notepad from his bag.

"I suppose let's cut to the chase, your looking to find your mother?" He asked, making a note on the pad. I nodded, from my own bag I took the folder Miranda had given me. That had all the information one might need on it. I handed it to him.

"This is basically all there is, all the information." I told him, and he opened it. I glanced to Owen, who put a hand on my thigh. I smiled inwardly. In the fluorescent lights, he looked even more handsome, and I wondered what I had done right to deserve him. In the meantime, while Don looked over the files he made notes on the pad.

"Evie would you mind if I took this folder to make photocopies of all of this information?" He asked. I nodded, brushing my own fingers over Owen's.

"I went and saw my dad the other day, in prison." I said. Owen raised an eyebrow at this and Don made another note.

"What all did he have to say?" He asked.

"He told me that my mom, Kaitlyn was an addict. He also said he was abusive to her, and that she left him, and when she left him she was pregnant. He said the last time he saw her was at that prison, and that she had filed for divorce." I said. He wrote all of this down.

"Right, this is a good start. You also have a few names on here, which is more than most have. However, I would like to tell you that sometimes these cases don't have happy endings. I want you to be prepared for that." He said, looking me directly in the eyes. I nodded, swallowing the lump forming in my throat.

"I understand, I just want some answers." I said. He nodded.

"We'll start with some public records searches, try and find her family, I do want to know who this Leo guy was and hopefully is, maybe they are still in contact. This shouldn't be too hard, unless of course she's going by an alias, which some people do. Or if she remarried, and changed her name. Although this should all show in public records. In that case, it may be harder to track her down. As well as if she has left Colorado." He said, sighing.

"Will you know, will you know if she's dead?" I asked, not even thinking before the words left my mouth. He shrugged at this.

"It is possible we may, if there is a death certificate, however if she was going by an alias, or admitted as a Jane Doe, then we can't know for sure. However, this is a good start. Firstly, I'm going to start with running a background check on her, seeing if she's ever done time in jail. If so, she may be on parole and have an officer, or probation." He said, sliding the folder into his bag.

"It's a common name, how will you find her?" I ask.

"It's helpful, that you exist, going off of your birth certificate I can most likely find her, and her family hopefully. Do you have a birth certificate?" He asked. I nodded, by some miracle my mother had kept it, and it was given back to me when I turned eighteen.

Don wrote down his number for me, and I folded it into my purse. He said he would text the second he got a good lead on this. I wondered if he would, and if he did, if it would be good.

"Is she considered a missing person?" I asked him, and he shook his head.

"I don't think the police would classify her as so, they would probably say she just didn't want to be found. However, to you she is a missing person." He said. I nodded, taking another sip of my coffee.

"Why do you make it sound so easy to find her? I've looked through facebook and Instagram and everything, and there's no one that matches her looks, or who I think might be her. There's hundreds of Kaitlyn Thomas's in the area, how will you know it's her?" I asked, practically letting the words spill from my lips.

"As an investigator I have access to some things you may not, however it also may not be easy because as I said, she doesn't want to be found. Perhaps she ran from something, or someone, perhaps she was in trouble with the law and needed to get out of town. It isn't uncommon for people to change their names, and forge fake ids, to get the hell out of dodge." He informed me. I nodded, this made sense.

The idea that she did not want to be found, hurt my heart. The fact that she never came back, to check on me, or see how I was doing. I wondered, if the night she left she intended to leave, or if she left, and couldn't come back. Maybe foul play was involved, and when she died, there was nobody who new who she was.

"I have, some photos of her." I said, pulling them from my bag. He looked them over. His eyes lingering on my mother's face. One of the ones I'd given him, had been taken at a park, presumably by check. She was sitting on a bench, with me in her arms, smiling. She smiled with her lips only though. He took the photos as well, and pulled out his phone, to take photos of them then handed them back to me.

"Thank you Evie for your time. I have another meeting in a few minutes so I've got to go." He said gathering his things.

"Thank you sir, I appreciate you being willing to help me, Please text me your rates." I said, knowing this was going to put me into debt. But he shook his head.

"I'm not worried about that right now. I will let you know as soon as I know something." He said, standing up. He gave Owen a pat on the shoulder.

"I'll see you wednesday, for dinner." He said to Owen, and Owen hugged his father goodbye. Then Don left. Leaving Owen and I with our coffee.

"Thank you too, I mean for coming and you know, setting this up." I said to him. He smiled at me, his eyes reflecting the light making him look more handsome than he had before.

"Of course, I wanted to be here for you. I can't imagine how hard this must be for you." He said. I sighed.

"Yeah, yeah it is. Really hard actually. But, I need answers, if I want to go on with my life." I said.

"Yeah? What are you gonna do with your life anyway?" He asked, I laughed at his phrasing of it.

"I don't really know, I mean, I'm just hanging out with Kiana, working, and I got a cat. Living the dream you know." I laughed.

"I didn't know you had a cat." He said.

"I got her today, her name's Mary, she's really shy."

"I'd love to meet her one day." He said, sipping his coffee.

"If you want, you can come over, I'm off work and maybe you could hang out, or or whatever." I said, blushing. I had a feeling I knew how this would end. And, maybe it was bad I wanted it to end that way.