All Chapters of The Secret Billionaire in Aisle 9 : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The Zurich airport buzzed with polished efficiency, all clean glass and quiet hums of multilingual announcements. Elijah Dane Whitaker stood by Gate B17, blazer slung over his arm, passport tucked neatly inside his breast pocket, and his phone silent in his hand.Two days. That was all it had been.And yet the guilt pressed down on his chest like an overstuffed carry-on refusing to fit under the seat.The corporate board meeting had gone smoothly. The Zurich branch—their flagship European BuyMore location—had exceeded quarterly projections, and the local executives were thrilled with his proposed digital modernization rollout. Elijah had delivered what was expected of him: sharp numbers, confident leadership, future-ready solutions.But for once, it all felt hollow.Because while he was in a glass conference room overlooking Lake Zurich, making promises to investors, he was also sending a short, vague text to a woman back in the States—so

The morning air inside BuyMore was sharp with the scent of fresh floor polish and too much citrus-scented cleaner.Eli stepped inside the store right at 8:59 a.m.—one minute before official opening. The lights overhead blinked to life in staggered rows, casting familiar fluorescent hues over aisles that hadn’t changed, people who hadn’t changed, and one woman who had.Callie stood across the store, clipboard tucked under her arm, eyes scanning the day’s printed schedules. Her hair was up in a high, no-nonsense ponytail, and her lips moved silently as she checked names off her list.She didn’t look up when he entered.She didn’t smile.And Eli felt that same dull throb return to his chest—an ache that had grown more persistent since last night’s quiet confrontation in the office.He had barely slept.For most of the night, he lay awake, staring at the ceiling of his small temporary rental and running through every word th

The plan started with a joke about bowling.Brenda was re-tagging clearance chargers in Aisle Seven when Marcus wandered by, sipping his usual syrupy blue slush, and muttered, “I bet I could out-bowl you with my eyes closed.”She raised a brow. “You think you’re that good?”“I think I’m that humble,” he said with a grin.Twenty minutes later, the joke evolved into a half-serious conversation. By the time Brenda reached the breakroom, she’d already opened a group chat called “BuyMore Night Out.”The idea was simple: no work talk, no name tags, no barcode scanners. Just fries, laughs, and neon shoes that made everyone look ridiculous.To everyone’s surprise—especially Marcus’s—it caught on fast.Naomi was in. Said she hadn’t been to a bowling alley in years.Even quiet Jacob from Inventory responded with a thumbs-up emoji.Eli responded with: Sounds fun. Count me in.Callie responded a full hour

Mondays at BuyMore always started a little sluggish.Customers wandered in like they’d forgotten what they needed. The registers hiccupped through updates. Someone spilled a bag of protein bars in aisle five by 9:02 a.m., and the intercom system cut out mid-announcement three separate times.But the real shift, the quiet one, hummed just beneath the surface.Because Eli and Callie were back to talking.Not about anything earth-shattering. Nothing deep.Just… talking.Bantering, even.It had started at the time clock, when Eli arrived two minutes late and offered her a sheepish grin.“Sorry. I blame my socks.”Callie didn’t look up from her clipboard. “I’m not writing you up for sock-related delays today. Don’t make it a habit.”“That was a very Supervisor thing to say,” Eli replied with a mock salute.“That’s because I’m your Supervisor.”“I find that mildly intimidating.”

The morning sun had barely crested over the city skyline when Eli pulled into the BuyMore parking lot.He sat there in his car, hands still on the steering wheel, watching the front doors through the windshield like they were a finish line he wasn’t sure he could cross.Another day.Another shift pretending to be someone he wasn’t.His reflection in the rearview mirror didn’t show a billionaire CEO. It didn’t show the Ivy League graduate, the boardroom tactician, or the newly appointed owner of the BuyMore retail chain.It showed Eli.The regular guy.The one who worked register three, cracked jokes in the breakroom, and lingered a little too long when Callie smiled at him.And that was the problem.Because that version of him—the one Callie liked, maybe even trusted—wasn’t real.Not entirely.And the longer he kept up the lie, the harder it was to know whether what they were building