What about you?
Faced with her father's question, Faiza opened her mouth but ultimately fell silent.
She wanted to say that she had also achieved something, but women in this country had very little privilege to achieve anything outside.
"I... I invested in two films."
She thought long and hard, and it seemed that this was the only thing that she had accomplished through her own efforts.
Dawud glared at her, unimpressed. "Don't mention your investments. You lost a fair amount of money in those, and while they did generate profits for the United States, you didn't make any money for yourself!"
Faiza was rendered speechless by his words, and it was some time before she muttered, "It's because she took my movie release dates. Otherwise, those two films would have made a fortune!"
There was some truth to what she said. She had insisted on scheduling her films at the same time as Laila's, and that had created a stark contrast. No one wanted to contribute to a film that everyone was criticizing. If she had chosen a different release time and ridden the initial buzz around her movie, things might not have turned out as disastrously at the box office.
As for "Pearl Harbor," well, that was another story. The main criticism of the original version of her previous life was its romantic subplot. After her modifications, the romantic elements were not only not improved, but they were intensified. Trying to intertwine a love story with a war-torn backdrop was considered foolish and insensitive rather than heart-wrenchingly beautiful like "Titanic." It was more of a story that made light of people's lives for the sake of romance.
Dawud didn't understand what had happened, nor did he care. Losing a few hundred million dollars on investments was tolerable, but Faiza's actions this time had the potential to greatly impact the entire family if the royal family found out. That was the reason he had slapped his beloved daughter as soon as he walked in.
As long as the family business was safe, what did it matter if he gave her a few hundred million dollars to play around with? But if the family itself was in danger, a few hundred million would be the least of their problems.
"I shouldn't have listened to you and sent that director back to the United States," Dawud sighed deeply, filled with regret.
Indeed, Laila's return to the United States was due to his intervention.
At his daughter's request, he hoped that Moran would return to the United States as soon as possible so that he would ask Faaris to cause some trouble for the young director. So they bribed the director of "Harry Potter" and promised to make a $200 million movie for him to direct.
In the end, the director who had never been known for family films readily accepted Faaris's offer. He submitted his resignation and, before leaving, poured a torrent of criticism on Laila and her team.
Dawud had only intended to grant his daughter a small wish, but he never expected her to be so daring. When she found out that Laila was indeed leaving and that the plane wasn't in Saudi Arabia, Faiza figured out a way to borrow Al Nadeem's plane and then contributed her two planes. She aimed to separate Laila from her bodyguards, to avoid any suspicion of wrongdoing.
And she succeeded. The plane lost contact and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, had already crashed into the sea. Now, it was a plane crash in the ocean, and it was improbable for anyone to expect that the two drugged individuals would return alive. Everything had gone according to Faiza's plan. If Roy had also drank the drink, if he hadn't helped Laila find a blanket and discovered that the crew was parachuting, if he hadn't grabbed a parachute... the result might have been the same. But It was not the same as she imagined.
Things have reached this situation, and Dawud had no choice but to deal with the situation at hand.
"We can't let those flight crew members stay; keeping them will only make the situation unpredictable," he stated. He wasn't afraid of his daughter's ruthlessness. If only she had been more ruthless when she had the chance, making sure they all perished with the plane. The current situation was far more troublesome. Keeping their mouths shut would be best, and the surest way was to make them appear dead.
"But how can we do that?" Faiza instinctively wanted to oppose the idea. When she saw her father's glare, she lowered her head. "They were... they were so hard to find. It took me so long to find these attractive and obedient ones. I can't just let them go. I care about them."
"Nonsense!" Dawud snorted. "Do you want them to live, or do you want our entire family to be dragged down by your foolishness?"
Faiza cringed and didn't argue further. While she didn't believe there was any connection between the two choices, she knew that her pocket money came from her father's love. If he loved her less, wouldn't her allowance decrease? How would she manage when she needed money?
"I'll listen to my father." Between pocket money and the attractive young men she had spent so much effort to find, she made a choice she considered the right one. With money, she could always find other handsome men. Even if she couldn't find them in Saudi Arabia, she could in neighboring countries. If that didn't work, she could go to Hollywood, where there were attractive people everywhere. She wasn't afraid of not being able to find a few aspiring stars who would work as flight attendants for her.
Dawud, now with a dark expression, nodded after receiving the address where those people were located and then left, waving his sleeves.
He wasn't Faiza, who had been pampered and spoiled. He knew that the royal family had already joined forces with the team led by Oswald Moran, and they were preparing to search for the plane. Once they discovered that the plane contained only two corpses, with everyone else missing, even a fool would realize that this incident was man-made, not a natural disaster. Therefore, he had to act quickly to dispose of the corpses of those crew members before that happened.
While he was busy covering up the foolish act his daughter had committed, Roy began to worry about Laila's condition.
The desert night air was chilly, and both of them were wearing thin clothing. Their only source of warmth was a thin blanket and a bedsheet, the very same ones Laila had been tied with earlier. It had been 24 hours since they left the Saudi airport, and while he had initially thought waiting for rescue was the best plan, who could guarantee when rescue would arrive? He didn't know how much longer Laila could hold on.
From the moment he first met her, Claire had always emphasized to him how weak Laila's health had been from a young age, nearly being taken by the Grim Reaper several times. He had kept those words in his heart and never let his concern for her health waver. He had never thought that the girl he had cared for so deeply and protected would fall so seriously ill in front of him one day!