Page 26 - Test 1 The tennis club - Copy –Kopi_Neat

acted as partly Phobe's protector and partly as a conflict mediator. It was not at all in the
cards for Edward's side that the two would become so close.

At first, when Edward got to know Victoria, Edward had carefully made sure that she had
been looked after when Victoria came to visit, so that she would not meet Phobe.

"Edward where is your daughter"

He had had the answer evasively and with answers like that.

"She had a play date"

Or.

"She is with her grandmother and grandfather" There had been instances in the past where
Victoria was aware that Phoebe was visiting Edward in Denmark, yet Phoebe was never
found at his home. Edward had been terrified to introduce Phoebe to Victoria. He knew
that, in Victoria's family, such a situation would be considered improper. He also
anticipated that she would find it strange that he had gotten a woman abroad pregnant.

Edward was painfully shy about answering questions such as why he hadn’t been more
careful and whether it wasn’t wrong for the child to grow up without both parents.

These were questions he had already endured from his own mother. Victoria’s family, as
he knew at the time, placed a high value on equality. They were, as far as he could tell, a
very liberal family, but also exceptionally skilled in business. Edward greatly admired her
grandfather, “Karl the Blacksmith.” Karl’s story was famous in the family: the talented
inventor who took a chance, traveled to the United States to present his invention to Henry

Ford himself, and ultimately became one of Denmark’s wealthiest men. This history had
instilled a deep respect in Edward, as well as a certain degree of anxiety. The woman
Edward had gotten Phoebe with did not match Victoria’s standards. She had been an
ordinary office worker; someone Victoria would never have deemed appropriate for the
family Edward came from. In hindsight, Edward realized the woman had been approaching
her “panic age,” and her eagerness for them to sleep together had been palpable. He had
fallen into it easily—too easily, perhaps. At just 22 years old, Edward had been naive, eager

for attention, and hungry for a sense of independence from the rigid structure of his life.
His days until then had been consumed by school and later by his studies, each step
carefully orchestrated to prepare him for his destiny: taking over the family business.

There had been no space for rebellion, no room for mistakes. His father had seen to that.
From the moment Edward could remember, he had been groomed to follow in the man’s