Jean's world was sinking in the ocean that was God's grace.

She hadn't been able to process anything else after what the man from the hotel said to her. Had she somehow subconsciously remembered Taylor's sign language and unknowingly signed "help me" while standing in the hotel lobby? She remembered thinking it, hoping the look on her face would be enough. And of all the people who could have possibly been standing behind the hotel counter, it was someone who could actually understand what she was saying.

The odds of all the pieces falling together were greater than any doubt she could have had in God's existence.

Jean hadn't had a chance to look at herself, but she was handed over to the medics rather quickly. The cut on her hand looked much worse than it actually was, but the responders seemed much more concerned with the injuries to her head and face. It was determined rather quickly that Jean had a concussion, and she was admitted into the hospital to be observed.

A detective by the name of Thomas Grey, who Jean had met in the lobby of the hotel, escorted her to the hospital. He was friendly and took the time to explain everything that was happening and was going to happen to Jean. Jean hated to be separated from Cecilia, but having an arm covered with blood deemed necessary for immediate treatment, and Cecilia was more than willing to give the police information. Jean had been told that victims in their situation were not usually as compliant with police, and it was a miracle they had come across the two of them. They were hopeful Cecilia's answers would help lead to more rescues as she had come from a larger operation.

Jean had told Thomas that she had just been abducted the day before. When she gave him the information, he had told her that her absence was reported less than 12 hours ago. He said they were able to move in for the rescue so quickly as the worker gave a detailed description of what Jean looked like.

Donovan had told Mitch that nobody would be looking for her, but it didn't even take them half a day to find her. Now she understood why Mitch was so nervous and why Donovan looked like he was losing his mind after she witnessed what she did at Carmello's.

"What will happen to Cecilia?" Jean asked. It seemed pretty obvious that she wasn't from the United States. What if she didn't have anyone here to help her?

"She will be okay," Thomas said. "More times than not, victims are not always trusting or compliant with police. Many victims end up going back to their captors because they don't know what else to do when their freed."

Jean felt sick to her stomach, but Thomas continued. "We were very fortunate to come across you guys. Cecilia has already shown us that she wants to help and she'll be taken care of. It's clear that you guys were connected to a much larger trafficking network, and were thinking Cecilia might be the key to getting more people out. She'll be given a U visa if she's not here legally."

Jean felt chills. The more she learned, the more she could already see how God was working. She was in complete awe of all He had done for her. If Cecilia was the key, and Jean had been the ticket out...it was too much to wrap her head around.

More than that, Cecilia's faith was restored the night Jean's began.

Jean sat in the hospital bed, wanting nothing more than to just go home. She had never experienced such an intense amount of emotions in her entire life. She was happy Thomas was there; she knew if she was alone, her mind would go back to the fear she experienced. Thomas didn't know who reported her as missing, but he assured her that her family had been contacted and were given information on where she was.

"By family, do you mean the people who reported me as missing?" Jean said, trying to understand.

Thomas looked confused. "Yes."

She didn't want to explain how her parents wouldn't have known she was missing and they probably wouldn't ever know that she was almost trafficked. So she didn't. She knew without a doubt it was Shawn who contacted authorities.

She watched the door, willing for him to walk through. She had been in the van for hours, and she had no idea where they were or how long it would take Shawn to get here. Thomas asked her some more questions about how she was taken, and Jean ended up telling him every detail.

She told him about the video, about how she worked at Carmello's for months, about Donovan, Brooke, the abuse that she witnessed of other girls and herself. She told him about how some girls would accept money for sexual favors and management was fully aware. Being a waitress, she didn't witness too much firsthand, but it was enough to know that it was a corrupt place. A business she was ashamed to have willingly been a part of.

"Off the record," Thomas said. "Why'd you do it? Why accept the job in the first place if you are so ashamed of it now?"

Jean felt the stab in her heart. "I originally convinced myself I just really needed the money. My neighbor really wanted me to work there, but I think sometimes people feel better about doing something they know is wrong if they can get others to get on board too."

Jean paused as she stared down at her feet. "But honestly, I was just lonely." She felt the tears rush to her eyes. "There were the twisted perverted people, but then there were just the lonely people. The ones who would just talk on and on and on. There were a lot of people like that." Jean stared into the distance. "Don't get me wrong, I see it differently now, and I don't know how the business exists legally in this day and age, but many of the people were like me. Just...alone in this world. Believing the lies. So they entered the place that feeds them lies. They believe the lies they're being sold." Jean laughed. "You wouldn't expect it to be the other way around, but for me it was."

Thomas just smiled as he listened to her talk. He shook his head at the floor and laughed to himself.

"You're going to have an incredible story to tell."

As she thought about this, her eyes flicked to the movement in the doorway and she gasped in surprise.

"Shawn," she breathed, but he was already moving towards her as she leaned forward to meet him. He threw his arms around her, one knee on the bed to get closer to her. She could feel him shaking as he buried his face into her shoulder. She couldn't hold the tears back herself, and she saw Thomas wave as he excused himself from the room. When Shawn pulled away to look at her, he wiped his face on his shoulder to clear the tears.

"Jeanette Leigh Arthur..." but he couldn't finish the thought. He instead moved in to kiss her gently. He sat on the edge of her bed and she could see his eyes tracing the side of her face as he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to wipe away more tears.

"It looks worse than it is," Jean said softly, lifting the corner of her mouth into a smile to comfort Shawn, who she knew was struggling with her black eye and bruises.

"I can't believe I let you go alone," Shawn said, studying her face as he shook her head. "I should have come."

Maybe it was because she had been hit in the head too hard, but she shook her head as she looked towards the window of the room. "Shawn, you weren't meant to be there."

He just looked at her.

"It was him, Shawn, you were right" she said, shaking her head,still in disbelief of what happened. "Jesus was there the entire time. He saved both of us."

"What do you mean both of you? Someone else was taken with you?"

She realized he hadn't been told anything.

"Shawn, you're never going to believe what I'm about to tell you."

***

Shawn looked at Jean who was fast asleep in the passenger seat of his car. They had been driving for hours and the hospital had kept Jean overnight. Her wrapped up hand was propped against the window and her head was leaned against it. It made him ill to see the bruises on her face, but he would never, as long as he lived, stop thanking God for all he had done for them.

He felt absolutely sick when she told him the story of what happened to her. He had known about trafficking, he just never imagined it happening to someone he knew. He could feel the darkness in Carmello's the few times he had been there. It wasn't surprising it was connected.

He was thankful Brooke was compliant with the police after Jean had gone missing. It had turned out one of the bouncers was in the trade, and he was forcing girls to work there without pay while also conducting other illegal businesses within the same walls. It made him sick to think that Jean had been working alongside all of this, unknowing, and would eventually be roped in herself. Brooke had said she didn't know exactly what was going on, but it was obvious it brought in a lot of revenue and business to the club.

When Shawn had gotten the phone call that Jean was found at a hotel a state over, he fell to the ground, thanking God for his mercy. He had gotten every person he knew to pray for her safety.
After hearing Jean's side of the story, Shawn was even more amazed by God than he had ever been in his life.

He also knew she had been through way too much to bring up the news about her mom right now.

She was finally sleeping. The night before in the hospital she barely slept at all, even though the doctor told her sleep was what would help heal her brain. He fell asleep next to her, but when he woke up, he saw her eyes were wide open, staring at the wall across from her, deep in thought.

He pulled in his driveway and just looked at her. He didn't want to wake her, even though the doctor told him he should every 2-3 hours and ask her simple questions to make sure she was okay for the next 24 hours.

"Jean," he whispered, gently grabbing her shoulder. She stirred but she just turned over and stayed asleep. Shawn laughed to himself, blinking away more grateful tears before stepping out of the car and walking over to the passenger side. He opened the door and the cool fall night air made Jean cringe.

"No," she said, covering her face with her hands as she tried to stay asleep.

"Relax," Shawn said, smiling as he pulled off her seatbelt. He wrapped her arms around his neck and picked her up. He was reminded of the very first time he had taken her to his house.

Everyone was sitting in Shawn's family room and they jumped to their feet when he walked in the door.

"Well don't you look like a hero," Scottie whispered, watching as Shawn carried Jean in his arms.

Shawn smirked at him before going to place her in his bed. She curled up and never once opened her eyes. Shawn brushed her hair back out of her face to get one last look at her before quietly closing his door to join his friends in the family room.

Chloe had tears in her eyes and Zeiler looked like she had been crying all day. Shawn sat down, and everyone was looking away, deep in thought. Nobody said a word.

"Wow," Tyler finally said at last, shaking his head and looking down at the ground. "Just...wow."

Scottie stood up after that, looking around at everyone in the circle. "We need to pray."

Shawn looked up to Scottie, shocked. Everyone else did too. He knew Chloe had been a good influence on Scottie's spiritual maturity, but this was completely out of the ordinary for him.

"Yeah," Shawn said, laughing subtly as he stood up as well. "We absolutely do."

Everyone moved closer together, putting their arms around each other as they bowed their heads towards the floor. Shawn was even more surprised when Scottie started leading them in prayer without hesitation.

Tears flowed all around as Scottie thanked the Lord for protecting Jean and bringing her home. He prayed that what had happened to her would stay in the past, and declared that the enemy had no place to hold the trauma over her in the future.

When he closed the prayer, everyone looked up at each other with red eyes. They all smiled and laughed in relief. Shawn broke away to move across the circle to give his oldest friend a hug as everyone turned to hug each other.

Jesus was moving in all of them.

Shawn told them the entire story, or at least what he had learned from Jean since finding her at the hospital. Everyone stared in disbelief as he spoke, shaking their heads as he gave them the details he knew.

"She said that Jesus saved her," Shawn said. Zeiler rolled her head back and wiped her eyes, groaning as she laughed at the unbelievable story he was telling.

"You were right," she said. "You has always said that God told you she was meant to be in your life." She blinked her eyes. "She's been on the road to faith the entire time."

"Hey," Scottie interrupted. "Did you tell her yet that her mom's in town?"

Shawn sighed, dropping his head in his hands. He had it in the back of his mind. He definitely didn't plan on telling her until he was sure she could handle it, and right now he figured she had been through enough.

"I'm going to," he replied. "So please add that to your prayers."

If Jesus has ever used divine timing to slap someone in the face, it was her mom the day she showed up at his house. Her parents had gotten her letter and her mom came to the address that he wrote on the return address. Finding Scottie inside his house was more of a surprise, and then finding out that she had gone missing made her lose it. She was found, of course, not long after, but Shawn told her she needed to go back to her hotel until he deemed Jean ready to have the news broken to that she was here. She had already been through enough. Surprisingly, her mom was understanding. It was as if she knew she had messed up.

Shawn had read her letter before she sent it. It was heartbreaking. She thought it was bold of her mom to show up unannounced. He really had no idea what she was like as a person, but he didn't know how anyone could leave their daughter for seven years and never visit. He tried not to judge, at least she had come back. Only Jesus knew her heart. She could have just never replied at all like Jean had feared.

How did they give birth to the most selfless girl Shawn had ever known?

Three hours later, Scottie had gone to bed and Chloe, Zeiler and Tyler returned home. Shawn knew he needed to wake Jean and make sure she was still okay like the doctor recommended.

Jean was surprisingly a heavy sleeper, and he put his hand on her shoulder to try to wake her. She groaned but didn't open her eyes.

"Hey," Shawn whispered, smiling as he leaned down to press his lips to hers. When he pulled back her eyes fluttered open and he saw her lightly smirk as she closed her eyes again.

"Listen, buddy," she said quietly. Shawn laughed as he brushed the hair from her face.

"Hey, tell me your name," Shawn said.

She pressed her hands to her eyes and she moaned in protest.

"Tell me your name and I'll leave you alone," Shawn said chuckling.

She turned over on her side. "Jeanette Elizabeth Arthur."

Elizabeth. His smile grew in the dark as he looked down at her. "Wow, alrighty then," Shawn said, kissing her forehead before standing up. She must have really wanted her sleep to let that secret go. "I will get out of your hair."

"Shawn," she said as he approached his doorway. He looked back and saw she still had her eyes closed.

"Yes, Jean?"

"I love you."

____________________________________

Hello friends it me Rachie

Thanks so much for reading and your support! Only 3 PARTS LEFt oMG

I've printed out this whole book, and have started HARDCORE editing the entire thing, considering it's 106,000 words total and I wrote the entire thing in 4 months.

I AM DEAD AT SOME OF THESE ERRORS WHY DIDNT YA'LL TELL ME HAHAHAHA

Like before Shawn was ever introduced I accidentally called Anthony "Shawn" and you guys were just like psshhhh whatevs we know who she meant
4 real u guys are so gracious 2 me

Oh, but my favorite is when Jasmine said "When Brooke dropped off your paycheck on your stripper, I thought for a second you were a stripper."

Stripper = birthday #dead