From the root
Laila was shocked to hear how the woman was behaving towards Giselle. At least with her she made some attempt at hiding the meanness in her words and hid it behind a cloak of fake smiles and laughter. But it appeared that she let her true colours shine through fully when it came to people she felt were beneath her. Once Giselle was out of hearing distance Laila returned her focus to the obnoxious woman, whom she was liking less and less with each minute that she spent in her company. She asked her, "Was that really necessary? Did you really have to put her down like that? It is one thing to address the way she does her work, even if I don't agree with your remarks, but there was no need to attack her personally."
The woman seemed shocked by Laila's words. With a look of disbelief she asked, "Are you really arguing with me over some staff member? What has gotten into you today?! Are these your hormones talking? You have never cared about how I talked to your staff or what I said to them. Have you now started caring about how they might feel? What's next, are you going to have lunch with them and ask them about their day!? It is their job to serve me and all other people who walk through those doors as your guests. If they don't do their jobs properly am I not allowed to be mad? So, I called her fat. So, what?! Is she even smart enough to know that I insulted her?"
Laila was appalled. She had never met a person that was as horrible as her. How can a person be so entitled, condescending and obnoxious. It was taking all of Laila to not kick her out of the house at that very moment. But right now she did not know who this woman was and what her full plan was. So, she couldn't take matters too far and risk her resorting to something even worse because her plans had been thwarted too soon. She needed to cut this evil out from the root. For that she needed to be patient. So, instead of arguing with the woman, she simply plastered another smile on her face and said, "Yes, sorry. It must be the hormones or I might just be a bit tired which has made me a bit more sensitive."
Hearing this explanation, the woman seemed to calm down again and said, "I thought so. Well, you are lucky that I am such a good friend. Any other friend would have walked out after being treated like this. Why don't you go and rest up after we have some tea and I will stay to look after you, in case you might need anything." Though the woman was all smiles, Laila felt like there was definitely something off about her 'kindness' here. She couldn't put her finger to it but she had no reason to reject her. Especially not since she already found her behaviour suspicious. So, she just smiled and went along in order to sell her own lie.
As discussed, they had their tea and snacks and after that Laila went to lie down for a nap on the couch while the woman, whose name she had yet to find out, bossed everyone around while watching some tv with her feet lifted up. But although Laila had closed her eyes and played along when the woman was testing if she had really fallen asleep, she was awake the entire time and her ears were pointed in her direction during every second her eyes were closed. She was 'asleep' for about an hour when Noah came downstairs to check up on her. This was when the woman's behaviour did a 180. Though Laila had already assumed the woman had her eyes on Noah, she didn't think that she was this obvious about it.
As soon as Noah was at the top of the stairs, the woman turned the tv off and sat up straight. She grabbed, what Laila could only assume was the morning paper. She figured that by now the woman was pretending to be immersed in that instead of the stupid show she was watching seconds before. All to sell herself as some kind of all round woman with beauty and brain even though she had neither. At least not naturally. It was clear that the woman had been touched up here and there plus with an inside so ugly, the outside will pale no matter how beautiful upon first sight.
Once Noah was almost down the stairs, she heard the woman call out to him in a sickening sweet voice and she wasted no time badmouthing Laila to Noah as soon as he was at a hearing distance. "Oh Noah, there you are. I was wondering if I would have to sit here all by myself without ever being able to see you. Fortunately you care more about your guests than our dear Laila does. She just ignored me and decided to take a nap, leaving me to entertain myself. Fortunately the paper was here, so I had something to keep me busy till now." But Noah didn't seem impressed at all judging by his tone he wasn't even aware that their guest was here, much less that he had come downstairs to see her. Something which must have given the woman's ego a good blow and entertained the 'sleeping' Laila oh so very much!