"It's just that after a while, he got mad whenever I refused to have sex."

She shares that during their marriage, he had a fling with one of his workers.

"In some ways, I couldn't really blame him. I was the one who pushed him away."

It was during one such confrontation that things got out of hand and Madam Lim's exhusband turned violent.

She recalls: "We were shouting and calling each other all kinds of ugly names, and then I called him a sex pervert.

"I could see the fury in his eyes and for a moment, I thought he'd kill me."

"I tried to run away, but he grabbed my hair and the next thing I knew, his fist was in my mouth."

He broke two of her teeth with one punch.

"I think he was stunned when he realised what he had done, and he kept saying he was sorry."

Two months later, he came home one night and told her that he'd let her go.

Madam Lim says: "Happy and relieved as I was, it took me another month before I actually did anything.

"I wasn't confident I could survive financially without him."

It didn't help that her mother back then had insisted it was her fault for "failing to do my duty as a wife".

"My mother is the traditional type who believed that a woman's place was at home, taking care of her husband and children," says Madam Lim.

She now works as an accounts clerk and has recently started on a new relationship, but declines to give more details.

"I want to take it one step at a time." She knows that her ex-husband also has another woman in his life.

"We don't talk to each other unless it's necessary, like when he comes to pick up our son for weekly visits.

"But I can see a hint of the man I fell in love with and I know it means he's happy."

She adds: "And because of this, I can finally let go of my guilty feelings."

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	What would you do if you witness abuse?

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