WP-Admin folder missing

Hi,

I had an issue with a Divi theme update/Wordfence update that crashed a site. Per the theme developers I uploaded a fresh copy of the theme in cPanel and repaired databse tables for Wordfence.

But I was still unable to access the WordPress dashboard and getting “critical error” messages. I went back into cPanel and suddenly saw that the WP-Admin folder is missing.

I never touched that folder. It used to be there. Now it is gone. I am truly baffled. (I checked the cPanel trash just to be sure I didn’t accidentally delete it – but it’s not in there.) The only file I replaced was the theme file and it’s fine.

Crazy question – is there a way to replace just the Wp-Admin folder? Or do I need to delete the current WordPress installation and install a new copy? And does that create a new database?
(I’ve been googling for an hour and not finding an answer.)

Any advice would be appreciated – I’ve never had this happen before.

Thank you ??