File Completely Vanished

Hello!

I absolutely cannot find my AI file anywhere. I was accessing it through recent files (my bad), however it's been pushed off the list. I know for a fact that its saved. The strangest thing is that when I open the JPEG of the last exported artboard in Illustrator, and then go to the recent files page, the file preview shows as if all the artboards are there and its the AI file. I'm fully lost and moderately panicked so any help is appreciated.

Thank you!