Sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.
Like many people, Canadian woman Denise Robertson had often dreamt about winning the lottery with her partner Maurice Thibeault but when her wish came true last month, the result wasn't quite what she was hoping for.
Now the couple are headed for court in a case which has gripped Canadian media.
"Together we dreamed about winning the lotto," she said in a sworn affidavit. "We both love muscle cars, we would each buy one and buy a large property in the country and build a large shop to work on our cars."
But instead of driving around Canada in muscle cars, the couple are locked in a battle over a $6 million lotto win, half of which Ms Robertson claims belongs to her.
Court documents obtained by public broadcaster CBC show Mr Thibeault bought a ticket in the $12 million Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation's (OLG) 6/49 game last month. On September 20, the corporation announced there were two winners, who would pocket $6 million each.
Mr Thibeault was one of the winners, a fact he did not share with his partner shortly before he quit his job and moved out of their home in Chatham, Ontario.
Text messages submitted to the court show Ms Robertson asking Mr Thibeault if he had the lucky ticket.
"Did you buy a 649 tix for last night?" she wrote. When he replied yes, she asked him to check it.
"I'll start planning the floor plan for the house," she texted.
Court documents show Mr Thibeault denied the win when asked by his partner.
"I am greatly saddened and disappointed by what has happened here," Ms Robertson said in a statement from her legal firm, Colautti Landry Pickard. "This could have been a very happy and exciting time for us, a couple, to do things we could only dream of doing."
According to Ms Robertson's affidavit, Mr Thibeault had shared her home for the past 2?? years with the couple buying lotto tickets together for "almost their entire relationship".
"We always agreed that if we had a winning ticket, the proceeds would be ours, together as a couple," she wrote in the affidavit.
Four days after she queried her partner about the ticket, she came home to find Mr Thibeault had left, taking his clothes and passport, according to court documents.
"When I look back, I recall that he did approximately 15 loads of laundry of all his clothes the night prior ??? as if he was preparing to pack up and leave," Ms Robertson wrote in the affidavit.
She contacted a lawyer who successfully applied for a court injunction on September 28.
Under the injunction, the OLG cannot disburse the winnings "the ownership issue can be disposed of."
Mr Thibeault has already tried to claim the millions at the Prize Centre in Toronto, an OLG representative told CBC, adding that the ticket would be under review even without an injunction.
All prizes of $10,000 or more are the subject of a robust review to ensure the money is paid to the rightful owner.
