"What about Mara, her life is in this place. She can't just leave."
"Elizabeth, I know that you have your means to convince your daughter."
Elizabeth was the most manipulative woman that Harold ever met.
"As for Mr. Thompson... Who cares, she's not even Mara's real father."
Harold's position was clear. He was on Kazir's side. As much as possible, he didn't want to sympathize with Elizabeth and her daughter.
'It's a good thing that I heard the voice record from Mr. Victor Grey, or else I might fall for this bitch's trap.'
Victor, Kazir's father, had recorded his conversation with Elizabeth last time. Honestly, he had no idea how to use it. He decided to give it to Salvatore and Harold instead.
The content of the voice record was too harsh for Kazir to hear so they kept quiet about it.
When Harold heard the voice record, his decision became firm. Leeches like Elizabeth and Mara didn't deserve his help. They were backstabbing bitches.
He knew that Elizabeth sided with Universal Pictures. Perhaps she even gave them some information that could threaten Kazir.
That was the last straw. Harold had no intention of letting it happen again. So he used all of the weapons he got to defeat Elizabeth.
The woman stated and him and weakly smiled.
"... You're a nice friend, Harold. I'm happy that my son has a friend like you."
"Please don't talk like you care about Kazir, it gives me the chills."
"Fufu, indeed..."
She sighed. Elizabeth grew up. She knew that the world was never a fairytale. She had to make her choice.
"I understand. My daughter and I will leave this country. However, I can't assure you that my daughter won't return. She has her own life ahead of her."
"I don't care. Don't touch my friend again or I will destroy Mara's life."
"You're a scary man, do you know that?"
"I should tell you the same thing. If you even showed at least an ounce of sympathy to Kazir, if you showed your love to him, this might never happened."
"It's too late."
She stood up and grabbed the envelope from Harold.
Harold had a copy of all of the documents so didn't matter.
'Elizabeth probably has a voice recorder in her pocket right now, but I also have one. Let's see things will happen.'
"It's such a shame... I almost caught you in the palm of my hand. I thought we were really gonna have sex today."
"..."
Harold didn't react. Since the moment he formed a business deal with Elizabeth, he was constantly seduced by the woman.
He almost fell for her tricks twice but he controlled his urge and remembered his purpose. The deal was to protect Kazir, not to have sex with his mother.
Besides, Harold had a family. If he had sex with Elizabeth, the woman would probably use that as a way to blackmail him.
Harold understood that spending more time with the woman would make him weaker... He might really have sex with Elizabeth because the woman was really beautiful and full of sex appeal, probably the reason why she could seduce many rich men.
'Thankfully, everything will end today. Kazir didn't have to face his mother. He should maintain his peace.'
Unfortunately, before Elizabeth was defeated, she successfully destroyed Kazir's relationship with Angelina.
A simple "You're not meant for each other, you don't deserve my son at all." made Angelina falter.
...
....
...
On May 5, Van Helsing was released by Universal Pictures and the reviews regarding the movie were mixed.
Some movie critics liked it but most people hated it. Many publishers stated that the movie was the most brain-dead movie that was released this year.
Universal Pictures tried to battle this opinion but they were overpowered by the media. Universal Pictures was not stupid, this was a payback for what happened last time. This was revenge.
The movie grossed $51.74 million on its first weekend but everything went downhill after that. The movie reviews that Van Helsing received were mixed and mostly negative. Even the CinemaScore was B. That rating was considered average.
In the CinemaScore rating, A+ was a masterpiece. A's generally are good. B's generally are shaky. C's are terrible. D's and F's... they shouldn't have made the movie.
This resulted in lower box office results for Van Helsing. On its second week, May 16, Van Helsing just went up to $86.09 million. For seven days, the movie only made $34 million.
It looked promising at first, but the whopping $160 million production cost turned it around.
Furthermore, it didn't help that Troy was released in the same week(May 13). It was a disaster for Universal Pictures. The ticket sales would split now that Troy was released.
If Van Helsing made $34 million in its second week, Troy grossed $46.86 on its first weekend. The gap would slowly widen until Van Helsing lost all of its strength.
Unlike Van Helsing which had a bad reputation, Troy had an A rating on CinemaScore.
The biggest reason why Van Helsing had negative reviews was because of 20th Century Fox, Sony-Columbia, and Warner Brothers.
20th Century Fox didn't like that Universal Pictures attacked 2 Fast 2 Furious.
Sony-Columbia was holding a grudge about what they did to Tobey Maguire and Kazir Grey.
As for Warner Brothers, Troy was produced by them and they have to sabotage Van Helsing so that Troy would make more money.
Business is Business. In Hollywood, these six big studios always have a head-on collision regarding profits.
+++++
[Author's Note: Perhaps a letdown, yeah, I didn't kill Elizabeth nor did I make her comatose... Unless I added a scenario where Elizabeth and Mara had a plane crash but that would be an overkill. Anyway, this will probably be the last time the mother and daughter will appear. I guess I have to find another antagonist, huh. Harold Witsend is the MVP this time.]