"I thought it was really so ridiculous. There are so many women out there who want a baby so badly but cannot conceive, and it was so easy for me."

This time, Ms Tan insisted, she "thought over it more intently".

And because she was certain it was her boyfriend's, she told him about it too.

"What I didn't expect was he'd be so excited. He immediately proposed and said we could get married right away.

"I was speechless. And fearful."

She adds: "He was really happy, but I was not. And I struggled over how I should let him know I wasn't ready to settle down."

What followed was several days of chats, cajoling, negotiations and then, arguments.

She was in a dilemma.

"On one hand, I was pleased he wanted to assume responsibility, but I felt he didn't think of me," says Ms Tan.

"I was a student, while he was working. He didn't have any idea of the kind of sacrifices I'd have to make, which included having to cope with what others would say or think of me.

"Not to forget my parents would kill me if they found out."

She adds: "He even told me if I didn't want the baby, I could just have it and then give it up to him. He was that adamant," recalls Ms Tan.

It was during one of their more heated debates over whether she should speak to a counsellor that she blurted out: "What's the difference? It's not like this will be my first abortion."

The revelation came as a blow to her boyfriend and he just walked off without a word. For the next three days, he didn't respond to her calls.

Unaware that her boyfriend needed the time to cool down, she thought he was avoiding her. Angry, she made an appointment with another gynaecologist.

It was also then that she was told the pregnancy didn't seem healthy and she was actually advised to consider an abortion.

"Frankly, I don't know if things could have turned out differently had it not been for that condition... maybe yes, maybe not. Who knows?" she says, shrugging her shoulders.

By the time Ms Tan's ex-boyfriend, who wants to be known only as Kevin, contacted her a week later, it was too late.

What angered him, he tells The New Paper on Sunday in a phone interview, wasn't that she had cheated on him, but that she made her decisions without consulting him.

"Not once, but twice! She took away a life, one that could have been the product of our love without my permission."

He says he has forgiven Ms Tan "after so many years" even though he still thinks about how life for them could have been.

Kevin adds: "Until today, when I see babies or little children, I'd wonder what it'd be like if we had our baby.