Max returned to Llanview with a new face and a new name.

In time, Gabrielle found love again, with a newcomer, Matt Kingston, whom reminded her so much of her beloved Max. Unbeknownst to her the reason, the reason for the similarity was because Kingston really was Max! In the aftermath of his horrific car crash, he had undergone extensive cosmetic surgery and returned to town to woo Gabrielle. Eventually, Max confessed his true identity to Gabrielle, and they married in a beautiful ceremony, presided over by a conflicted Father Tony. Father Tony�s feelings for Gabrielle were far were resolved.

Max discovered that years earlier, Asa cheated his father Wingate out of land that was rich with oil and Max swore revenge! Gabrielle found out that Asa once slept with Max�s mother about the time Max was conceived. She wondered: could Max be Asa�s son? To her disappointment, the greedy Mrs. Holden discovered it to not be so. Still wanting the Buchanan money and power, however, she bribed an old midwife, Du Ann Demerest, to claim that Asa fathered indeed Max. Hearing the news, Asa was shocked that Max was his flesh and blood. Wanting to do right by his �flesh and blood,� Asa reached out to Max, who bitterly rejected him.

Father Tony caught Gabrielle embezzling funds from Outlook House. In order to keep him quiet about her many financial indiscretions, Gabrielle seduced Tony.