When Shaeeda Sween first arrived in Kansas City, Missouri from Trinidad and Tobago, her fiancé Bilal Hazziez pranked her by showing up in a beat-up work van and taking her to his childhood home, which was far more humble than the house he currently lives in. She spent the night there but was concerned because he had told her he was very successful and this experience seemed to prove he had been misleading her. Bilal brought her to his real house the next day, but this deceptive test Bilal pulled during their first hours together in the U.S. continues to weigh on their relationship.
During Part 1 of the Season 9 tell-all special, Shaeeda opened up about what a shock it was to come to the United States. When the host Shuan Robinson asked her what the shock was, Shaeeda revealed that it wasn’t culture shock she was talking about.
“The prank,” Shaeeda said. “We still have disagreements,” Bilal said that he pulled this prank on Shaeeda because he wanted to make sure she loved him for him, not for what he has. He said he wanted to see “if her words match her actions.” However, the prank may have revealed more about Bilal than Shaeeda.
Bilal owes his success to being a real estate investor and a real estate agent. Although he seems to be doing very well, he is fixated on the fear that he will either lose all of his money, or Shaeeda will leave him and take his money.
Shaeeda told Shaun that when Bilal had visited her country, she and her family had “rolled out the red carpet” for him, so she expected a similar experience when she came to the U.S. “The thing about it he wants me to be grateful and appreciate it,” Shaeeda says. “The house, it was not flattering.”
Kobe Blaise came to Shaeeda’s defense saying that the prank painted Shaeeda in an unflattering light and made it seem like Bilal thought she was a gold-digger.
Bilal didn’t respond to this, so Shaun asked Bilal what he learned about Shaeeda from the prank. He answered that he didn’t expect her to love the house, but he didn’t expect her to take it “as far as she did.” He goes on to say that he fears that if he lost all of his money, Shaeeda would leave him instead of helping him rebuild.
Yve Arellano then pointed out that is seems like Bilal is always testing Shaeeda. Bilal then turned Yve’s comments back around on her saying “It’s interesting that you use the words test or control, but when it comes to you, there’s no test or control.”
Bilal then claimed that he wasn’t testing Shaeeda, but instead wants “words of confirmation.” He goes on to say that he and Shaeeda want to “build an empire together.” While Bilal said this, Shaeeda widened her eyes but said nothing.
Ariela Weinberg then spoke up and told Bilal that she was suspicious of him because he always has an answer for everything and that he’s always controlling the narrative and telling Shaeeda how she feels.
When Guillermo spoke up in admiration of Bilal and the way he talks and always says he’s sorry, Patrick jumped in to say that this is just a sales tactic, and Patrick should know because he’s a salesman. (Patrick works as a door-to-door home security salesman.)
“He’s a salesman,” Patrick says. “He is an amazing salesman. That is what we are all witnessing right now.” Patrick notices that Bilal is blocking everyone from getting their point across and twisting their words. “Being a salesman, I’m watching in awe,” Patrick says.
Bilal agrees that he’s a salesman, but argues that they are all salespeople. Patrick comes back with, “You’ll never stop. You can always control the conversation in a way, because you know what to say, when to say . . . You know how that person is going to react, you know how to drop your tone, you know how to get people engaged. It’s a habit now.”
Patrick pointed out that when Bilal did the “time out” earlier, he used that moment to arrest control of the narrative. He notices that Bilal will say “I see what you’re saying, but” to direct a conversation back to the way he wants it.
“Like you do?” Patrick’s wife Thais asks. “Yeah,” Patrick says. “Like I do.”
Shaeeda agrees that Bilal is like a salesperson because he always has to win a conversation.
This isn’t the only issue between Bilal and Shaeeda, his obsession with cleanliness also puts pressure on Shaeeda. For example, just before the cast members came on stage for the tell-all they were served some snacks. During this time, Shaeeda says he was watching her eat to make sure she wasn’t being “too messy.”
Bilal then interrupted Shaeeda and the host from discussing this by saying “time out, context is everything” while making the time out gesture with his hands. He said that Shaeeda tried to touch him while she had “stuff all over her hands.” He then said Guillermo saw it too because he brought her some hand sanitizer.
