Adam returns from his tennis game at the club, he arrives somewhat tired and asks his butler to prepare him a hot bath. Then, the tired young man immerses his body in the warm and soapy waters of his very luxurious tub, relaxes and proceeds to look at the last messages on his cell phone, he reads them without much interest but the last one thrills him out of his monotonous activity, it's a message from Lara. She is his neighbor and had recently married a millionaire businessman who doubled him in age. Adam and Lara had met a month ago in the club, which casually the newly married couple frequently visited.
Adam had inherited a large fortune from his parents, who had died of natural causes; he was a young man of twenty five years old and Lara was about the same age. The two had been passionately having an affair for a week.
Adam and his adulterous girlfriend would often go to an expensive hotel on the outskirts of town to see each other in secret, these encounters occurred when Lara's husband traveled for work. Adam felt something special for the girl and he had been through a hard breakup less than a month ago... Having met Laura had brought him out of the depression that was consuming him in those days.
The immense mansions of these millionaires were a few feet away from each other and from the top of the windows they could see the open spaces and pools of their neighbors. When encounters with Laura were not possible, Adam went up to the upper room of his house and from there he would look through Laura's window, he did this by using a kind of telescope that he had installed to spy on his beloved Lara.
Adam's butler, on the other hand, was a faithful servant, more or less twice the age of his patron. He had served his family for many years and happened to be the son of the former butler of his deceased parents, he knew absolutely everything concerning the house and kept it impeccable and clean. Besides that, the butler maintained a very close affiliation with Adam, it seemed like a relationship of father and son, they talked a lot and the butler would give Adam advice on almost everything. Many times the attentions of the butler went to extremes, to the point that from time to time he'd even dress Adam, something to which the young man got accustomed to.
Lara and her husband would ocasionally go on vacation. She told Adam that she and her husband tried to make things better on those trips, but this never happened. During vacations she spent her days bored, doing almost nothing, she also said that she thought of Adam whenever they were apart. Adam begged Lara to divorce as soon as possible, that a marriage like that would not lead to anything good, but for some reason she dodged his advice and changed the conversation, which bothered Adam .
Once of those days where the married couple came back from their holidays, Adam watched from his window that they were fighting beside the swimming pool of their house, he could see that the quarrel was so strong that he could even hear the cries of Lara. She was a very impetuous woman, extremely beautiful but she had a hysterical behavior, when Adam sometimes bringed up the subject of divorce, Lara with her extremely exaggerated behavior became very angry; this worried Adam, as this began to occur more frequently and seemed to increase of intensity.
Despite all of this, Adam fell more and more in love with the woman as he became obsessed with stalking her every movement from his telescope. The butler noticed what was happening and he'd discreetly tell Adam in some of their conversations to be careful with that toxic relationship he had going on with her.
As days passed by, Lara took a bold step in her relationship with Adam and dared to go to his home, she went there with the excuse of bringing him an apple pie. She was welcomed by the butler and Adam, then the latter would go up to his room with her to do the inevitable. The butler was worried about this situation that began to recur weekly, she'd always visit with her apple pie. The faithful server told Adam that things with that girl could end up badly, but Adam complained by telling him not mess with his life, that he wasn't a baby and he knew what he was doing and that the butler was not his father to give him such warnings. This hurted the butler very badly and he felt a sense of disappointment and ingratitude on Adam's part.
One Sunday night, the butler went up to the room where Adam had his device to spy on his neighbor's mistress, looked through the lens, and noticed that the couple had just arrived from one of their boring vacations, he could see that as always, they were fighting, but this time the discussion was harder than ever. The butler quickly left the room and went downstairs as he heard Adam arrive. Adam was in a very bad mood, "will you have dinner?", the butler asked, but Adam shook his head, claiming he was not hungry. The faithful servant suggested that he eat at least some of the apple pie that Lara had left last Thursday, he knew he would not refuse this, so a piece of it was eaten. As he finished eating the pie, Adam went upstairs and felt dizzy, then lost consciousness.
Adam opens his eyes and realizes that he is in the hospital, beside him was his faithful butler, "excuse me Charles, could you briefly explain me why I'm now laying on a bed in this hospital?" Adam asked in complete disbelief, "yes, sir. I would love to. However, I couldn't really promise that it will be a brief story", replied the butler with a tone that left a certain mystery. Adam frowned and looking at his interlocutor said, "ok, then. We have enough time. Please, go ahead".
"Good, sir. You know our neighbors, correct? You know that sometimes they travel for longer and when they arrive back hope they have quarrels. Well, last time the quarrel lasted longer than usual. That's why... ". The young man surprised by what his butler told him listened to everything that his butler said, apparently there was a big fight between the married couple, to the point wherethey took sharp knives and mortally wounded each other. The police arrived at the place by chance, since the butler had called in emergency to attend Adam who had fainted and fallen down the stairs.
The ambulance went his house and passed by in front of the mansion of the neighbors as they saw Lara lying dead on the pavement bathed in blood, then the paramedics had to call another ambulance and the police. After the detectives entered the mansion, they were able to find her husband dead in the same way with multiple puncture wounds, apparently Lara wanted to run away or ask for help, leaving her house but died in her attempt of leaving. The police are still investigating the case but everything indicates that they were two crimes of passion. However, it was strange that Lara tried to do what she did without thinking about making an emergency call.
After listening all of the story, Adam gasped and fixed his gaze on the white ceiling of the room. With a sudden dizziness, he closed his eyes and began to cry while his faithful butler looked at him with a machiavellian look and a macabre smile.