TIFU: "Winning" the lottery, losing from friends and ending up worse off

Hey reddit, I didn't think I'll be seeing you here.

I want to bring people up to date first. I made this asccount to find legal advice over a situation I had about lottery winnings.

Me (22M) and 3 of my friends who I lived with Mark (25M) Luke (22M, now 23) and Abbie (22F) used to all buy tickets using our shared account of money and just chill to pass the time and gamble a little bit. It was a nice way to spend lockdown together and became a little bit of a tradition.

Luke, Mark and I decided to go out one night which Abbie decide to stay over with her girlfriend. The next day she became super distant from all of us which drew my suspicion.

These suspicions were right when Abbies girlfriend asked me what I'd do with my winnings.

That's when I posted on reddit for legal advice. The response was quite overwhelming at first. I posted it and expected a couple of responses after an hour but I came back with more than I bargined for. All of them seemed to be supportive of me getting legal advice and to take action on Abbie. So I started a plan in my head.

I confronted Mark and Luke about my plan. Luke seemed excited and appeared to have the same concerns that I have. Mark didn't want to be part of it for some reason, denying it and that we should just trust her. I mentioned that I might seek out legal advice to them to but I fully intened to confront Abbie about it.

So I did.

When we were all around dinner one day, I asked her what was up and if she won anything big that day. She seemed to bat it off at first but I then stupidly named dropped her girlfriend. I don't think ballistic is a strong enough word to describe what happened afterwards.

Name calling, things chucked, fork in the wall, it felt ages at the time but looking back everything happened in a split second. I shouted out I am going to get a lawyer before she left.

About an hour later she came back and collected some essentials and left. This was the last time I saw her.

I spoke to Luke and Mark some more after that and then went with Luke to talk to a proper, good lawyer about it. They are expensive.

3 days later all hell breaks loose.

Landlord wants us gone from the house in a month, citing distruptive behaviour and damages. Our explaining to him is futile, he wants us gone. I start looking for options for us 3 to move to when Mark breaks down.

He confronted Abbie the day after she became distant with his concerns about the winnings. She admitted the truth and gave him £80k to be quiet about it.

After some more arugements, Mark leaves for good. Down 2 people who I thought were friends.

Lawyer calls back and asks us to come in. States we have little to no case about the situation, he thinks out time is going to be wasted and its better to not persue. Stuipdly, we disagree. This lawyer must suck, reddit thinks we have a good chance, lets go to another one! Nope. Says the same thing, down even more money.

We both get kicked out the house by the Landlord, I can't support living by myself and I can't find a home that'll take me. I ended up selling a couple things to be able to stay in a hotel for a bit before I go couch hopping between my family and some friends.

Writing this on the long train back home. I just wish things panned out better. Makes me think, if I didn't go out that evening i'd be living in it. Now im back to what I was when I was 19. It's reminded me never to trust the internet.

TL;DR - Friend won lottery and I assumed she'd share. Didn't lost a lot of money and a friendgroup along the way