If Only I Hadn't Loved You

After agreeing to become Wilfred Cooper's antidote, Megan Lovell finds herself pregnant and trapped in a marriage she never wanted. Then Wilfred's first love, Celine Shaw, is kidnapped and dies on their wedding day. Consumed by grief and rage, Wilfred blames Megan for everything. He watches coldly as she dies in agony during a difficult labor. The show's opening is cruel on purpose, and that cruelty is what makes the rebirth land.

Premise

Megan wakes up on the very day Wilfred was drugged, and the second chance is the spine of the drama. The Rebirth & Time Travel, Revenge, and Romance labels all show up, and the Family Drama and Hidden Identity tags suggest the plot will reach beyond the couple. The rebirth isn't a gimmick. It gives Megan the one thing she never had: knowledge of how the story ends.

The premise is built on contrast. Megan's first life was defined by a forced match and a husband who wouldn't listen. Her second life is about refusing to repeat those mistakes, and the drama uses that refusal to drive its tension.

Characters

Megan is the central figure. The synopsis shows her as someone caught in a bad situation who suffers badly for it. In the second life she is sharper, and the show lets her play dumb when that serves her, which gives the early episodes a clever streak. She's not interested in winning Wilfred back at any cost. She wants to protect herself and the child.

Wilfred is the man whose grief turned into cruelty. The drama makes him a complicated figure, because his anger is rooted in a real loss, even though the way he acts toward Megan is unforgivable. Celine is the lost first love whose death sets the whole tragedy in motion, and her shadow lingers over every choice Wilfred makes.

Main arc

The arc starts with Megan's attempt to change the course of events. The rebirth lets her avoid the traps she fell into before, and the show uses those avoided traps to build suspense. Each decision she makes ripples outward, changing how Wilfred and the people around him respond.

As the story progresses, the question becomes whether Wilfred can see her as a different person at all. The revenge label points to a struggle over blame and accountability. The romance is possible, but only if the wounds from the first life can be faced honestly. The later episodes lean into that reckoning.

Themes & tropes

The central theme is agency. Megan's first life was shaped by men who decided her fate, and her second life is about taking that control back. The drama also explores grief as a force that can distort love into cruelty, which gives Wilfred's arc its tragic edge.

The tropes are the rebirth, the forced marriage, the secret baby, and the revenge that comes from a broken promise. The Playing Dumb and Rebellious tags hint at Megan's strategies, and the family drama beats make the stakes personal.

Why viewers watch

This is a good watch if you enjoy a rebirth story where the heroine uses foresight to fight back. The cruelty of the opening makes the second chance feel earned, and the middle episodes reward you for tracking Megan's clever moves.

It also fits viewers who want a romance with real tension and a clear sense of injustice. You'll be pulled between hoping Wilfred changes and wanting Megan to walk away, and that uncertainty is much of the fun.