Kendall Hart

"I didn't mean to cause trouble. Honest."

- Kendall Hart

Kendall Hart is a fictional character on the ABC soap opera, ''All My Children. ''Kendall is the daughter of the series' central character, Erica Kane, a child conceived after Erica was raped on the night of her 14th birthday by movie matinee idol, Richard Fields. Emerging as one of daytime television’s most layered and popular characters, Kendall Hart was originally written as a complex villain. She was described as a "complicated bad girl," (Hart, Marla. ‘Erica Kane's Daughter Fashioned From Same Mold’. Chicago Tribune. 1994), “hell on wheels daughter,” and called "the scheming daughter of the biggest schemer of them all, Erica Kane," ('Like Mother, Like Daughter.' Daytime TV. 1994), sharing similar multifaceted qualities that had launched Erica’s character into pop culture prominence. (Hart 1994) As "Pine Valley's teenaged troublemaker,” the character received popular viewer response ('Reader’s Notes: Who’s Getting the Most Letters.' Soap Opera Update. November 1 1994)(Hart 1994) and actress Sarah Michelle Gellar won a Daytime Emmy in the category of "Outstanding Younger Actress" for her portrayal of Kendall Hart in 1995. Kendall Hart is later reformed by the series and written as a heroine, reconciled for good with her families, developing close relationships with her mother and half-sister, while retaining her popularity as a character and keeping some of her devious traits. Kendall became a fan favorite under both actresses who portrayed her, Gellar and Alicia Minshew (Kendall Hart, 2002-2013).

She was initially portrayed by then 15-year old Sarah Michelle Gellar during the character's first run from March 11, 1993 to July 3, 1995 and then by Alicia Minshew from January 7, 2002 to September 23, 2011. Minshew appeared as Kendall Hart on the Prospect Park's revival of All My Children in the second July 8, 2013 episode.

"I seduced my stepfather, and when he wouldn't sleep with me, I slept with the stable boy, cried rape, and my mother stabbed him with a letter opener. Then I went to jail for perjury, burned my parents' divorce papers, and locked up my little sister. I think that was all in the first week."

- Gellar on playing Kendall Hart, New York Times, April 1997

Character age, origins, and development
The idea for the character of Kendall Hart as a long-lost daughter and foil for one of All My Children's originating villains, Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), existed for years prior to the character's debut but producers had to wait until the right time in Erica's storyline to introduce her (Tracy, Kathleen. The Girl's Got Bite: The Original Unauthorized Guide to Buffy's World. St. Martin's Press. 2003). Described as the "saucy daughter" of "she-devil Erica Kane," (Pearlman, Cindy. ‘Waiting for Buffy.’ Chicago Sun Times. 1997) Kendall was fashioned after a younger version of Erica, explained as a “schemer who does the wrong things for the right reasons” and retaining sympathetic qualities alongside her devious traits in her drive for approval. (Hart 1994) (Tracy 64) 15-year old Gellar, bearing a resemblance to Lucci with the forceful personality and acting skill needed for the character, won the role over many teenaged actresses. (Tracy 64) Though viewed by some as "the second coming of Erica" and winning a Daytime Emmy for the role in 1995, Gellar departed in 1995 to pursue other projects. (Tracy 65) Kendall Hart was later played by actress, Alicia Minshew, from 2002-2013, who portrayed the character with many of these traits written to be kept intact even after Kendall’s reformation.

Details of the character's real identity were kept secret until they were revealed on screen a month after Kendall's debut. Gellar learned she'd be playing Erica Kane's long-lost child right after being cast but before she started filming (Tracy 64). In 2001, Minshew experienced a similar situation in which she wasn't told she was auditioning for the role of Kendall until after her screen test. (Alicia Minshew: Queen of Hearts. Soap Opera Town. 2002)

On March 11, 1993, Kendall was introduced to the audience as a waifish, starry-eyed 16-year old runaway wanting to meet her celebrity idol, Erica Kane, while her true identity is kept secret by the character and writers. Kendall's character was written to feel displaced in her life with her adoptive parents and dreams of a fantasy mother-daughter relationship with Erica, who she projects as a dream mother, but is hurt and angry over Erica giving her up for adoption to the Harts as a baby. Consequently, she seeks revenge against her mother as payback while longing for her mother's love and, driven by this need, Kendall acts out for attention. During the first month of Kendall's storyline, clues directed to the audience hinted at her true identity including noted similarities between Erica and Kendall, vague story references to a familial connection, Kendall's mysterious documents, questions about her identity, Mona's recognition of Kendall's birthmark and that Erica had been pregnant at 14 with a child she and Mona gave up for adoption.

In April 1993, Kendall was confirmed to the audience as Erica's long lost daughter. Due to timeline discrepancies involving the current audience remembering Erica had not been a pregnant teenager 17-years before and later, 16-year old Kendall being said to have been conceived in a then-written 23-24 year old rape, Kendall's character was rapidly aged from her teens to 22-23 years old in the summer of 1993 (birth date revised to September 25, 1970). Upon the character's return in 2002, Kendall's birth date was revised back to September 25, 1976 under Minshew, reverting her age to her original birth date when she appeared as a 16-year old girl in the spring of 1993.

Backstory
When Erica was 14-years old, she is raped by Richard Fields, an aging B-movie actor who was Erica's favorite film star and a friend of her father's, director Eric Kane. Fields often targeted young girls. It was later revealed Eric Kane had set this up in exchange for Fields to act in a movie he was directing. Erica became pregnant and due to her trauma from the rape and young age, she and her mother, Mona Tyler, placed Erica's baby daughter, Kendall, for adoption to the Harts. The Harts raised Kendall in Florida where they kept her adoption from her. Overhearing her parents talking late at night as a child, Kendall learns she was adopted but keeps this newfound knowledge from her parents. When she is old enough, a headstrong Kendall unseals her adoption papers and discovers her birth mother is her childhood idol, Erica Kane. She saves up her money to go to Pine Valley. Kendall builds up a fantasy that she would meet her famous mother, become part of her glamorous life, and believes she'll finally figure out who she is herself and where she belongs once she has found Erica.

1993
Kendall Hart was born in Phoenix, Arizona to a teenaged Erica Kane who, with her mother, Mona Tyler, gave her baby girl up for adoption to Bill and Alice Hart to provide Kendall with a good life. The Harts raise her in Florida and as a child, Kendall learns of her adoption when she overhears her parents discuss it late one night but keeps this knowledge to herself. Though growing up in a loving home as a cherished child, a displaced Kendall feels she hasn't belonged all of her life and unseals her adoption papers when she is old enough, discovering her birth mother is her idol since childhood and celebrity, Erica Kane. In March 1993, she comes to Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, as a teenaged waif seeking a fairy tale-esque Hollywood reunion of mother and long-lost child. She waits for Erica in the offices at Enchantment, Erica's cosmetics company, a runaway kid claiming to be from an abusive home. Upon meeting Erica and her fiancé, Count Dimitri Marick, Kendall begs for a job and faints. Erica hires her as her personal assistant and puts her up at the Pine Valley Inn until Kendall moves to Myrtle Fargate's boarding house in April 1994. Kendall aids in planning Erica's wedding to Dimitri from March to May 1993. She stores her adoption papers identifying her birth mother in her doll that she keeps with her in her bedroom.

Kendall is in for a shock while working for the demanding, often egotistical Erica. Initially excited to work for her famous idol and having looked up to Erica all her life, Kendall devotes herself to her job and impresses Erica and Dimitri with her skills by successfully putting together their engagement party. At the party, Erica's mother, Mona, recognizes a familiar birthmark on the back of Kendall's neck while fixing her hair and begins discreetly seeking information about her in April 1993, starting getting to know Kendall. Meanwhile, Kendall is given the task of planning Erica's wedding but her resentment over being treated as an employee increases upon witnessing the attention Erica lavishes on her eight-year old daughter, Bianca, visiting from Seattle (Kendall, again lost in Hollywood lore, somehow thought Erica would sense their hidden connection and she perceives Bianca to have, in Kendall's view, the type of life she was also always supposed to have). When Erica remains oblivious to the truth and starts becoming irritated and confused by Kendall's seemingly random accusations/dramatic moods around her, ranging from longing to anger (Erica: "I feel like I'm in the final act of an opera"), Kendall quickly manages to avoid telling her who she is and Erica softens when Kendall explains about feeling displaced all her life. However, a bitter Kendall is still hurt over this and begins to sabotage Erica's wedding plans by deliberately ordering the wrong supplies. She cancels the orchestra, orders the wrong wine, and later burns Dimitri's divorce papers from his ex-wife, Angelique, that would allow him to marry Erica.

Continuing to keep her investigation of Kendall hidden after she recognizes Kendall's birthmark, Mona realizes Kendall may be Erica's baby girl she had Erica give up for adoption at age 14. She solicits the help of her long-time friend and investigator, Nick Davis. She confides her suspicions that Erica's new assistant, Kendall, is her daughter. Distressed, Mona reveals Erica's rape on her 14th birthday by a friend of her father's when she was visiting her father in California, her subsequent pregnancy, and Kendall's birth in Phoenix. She remembers she only discovered Erica's pregnancy in her fifth month when Erica had just started showing so it was too late for a safe abortion in Europe. She explains her shock to realize Erica was pregnant when she saw her step out of the shower and learned she was raped when Erica, traumatized by the rape and unable to fully realize her situation, finally tried explaining to her mother what had happened to her the night of her birthday. Mona decided to take Erica to Phoenix for the final months of her pregnancy and have her baby, explaining the difficulty of that time and recounts the birth. Mona reveals she gave Erica’s baby up for adoption but that she held Kendall as an infant, "She was a beauty, strong and healthy, screaming like a banshee. She was quite like her mother," remembers that she had a "little birthmark", and tells Nick, "I held her until she calmed down and I looked very deep into her eyes and I told her that I loved her." After Kendall's birth and adoption, she remembers urging Erica that it was best to keep this experience a secret and bury it inside herself so she could be spared the pain of that memory. Mona explains she thinks she’s seen this birthmark and looked into that child’s eyes again, “I think the little girl that Erica gave birth to is in Pine Valley,” admitting she believes Kendall Hart is Erica’s daughter. Mona asks Nick to help her investigate Kendall’s identity but wants to keep this from Erica until they can confirm Kendall is this child just in case she is wrong.

Nick searches Kendall's room at Myrtle's boarding house and plants a teenaged private detective, Hayley Vaughan, as a resident to investigate Kendall. Being near Kendall's age, Hayley tries to befriend her to get information but Kendall blows her off. Erica almost discovers the mission when Kendall confronts her about Nick searching her room but Nick and Mona cover up their efforts when Erica sees them about it. Hayley and Charlie visit the Harts, who deny Kendall is adopted and Mona ends the search. Meanwhile, Kendall reveals to Myrtle that Erica is her mother after Myrtle almost kicks Kendall out for back talking when she breaks one of the rules by smoking. Kendall, feeling unwanted, explains she was given up for adoption and is angry over it but when Myrtle counters that perhaps her mother had no choice, Kendall is upset her birth mother had another daughter and kept her, wondering why she wasn't kept as well. When Myrtle realizes Kendall wants to confront her mother and counsels Kendall not to do anything rash, to have “a little care and thought for the woman who brought (her) into the world,” Kendall angrily blurts out that Erica is her mother. She shows her adoption papers hidden in her doll. Kendall reveals she never felt like she belonged, that her life with the Harts was too small for her, and she was meant for bigger things. Kendall explains she found a reason for her feelings when she became old enough to access her adoption papers and discovered the woman she idolized all her life was actually her mother, feeling she always belonged with Erica. Explaining she wanted to get to know Erica and then reveal she was her daughter, Kendall is upset that Erica didn't somehow sense their hidden connection. Myrtle tells Kendall she is acting like a "spoiled child," reminds her that she lied to Erica about her identity, and urges Kendall to just tell Erica the truth of who she really is. Kendall agrees to consider it but swears Myrtle to secrecy.

Encouraged by Myrtle several times, a hopeful Kendall tries to tell Erica she is her daughter but is halted when Erica announces Bianca is coming to Wildwind. Kendall nervously tries again to tell Erica the truth later that month but before she can reveal her identity, Erica lectures Kendall she is an employee after she learns Kendall accepted Dimitri's offer to teach her horse back riding, fearing this takes away from his time with Bianca, and sets boundaries, offering to fund lessons at a public stable instead. This intensifies Kendall's upset yet she tries again to reveal she is her daughter but Erica discovers Kendall's incorrect orchestra/wine orders for her wedding and angrily scolds her, flabbergasted when Kendall angrily talks back to her, and scolds her for that as well. Crushed, Kendall flees, where she tearfully lashes out at a bewildered Bianca and when Dimitri tries to gently set things straight with Kendall after hearing about her tantrum from Erica, Kendall hides Dimitri's divorce papers and burns them. In May 1993, Dimitri learns Kendall is trying to ruin the wedding and after furiously forcing her to confess, pressures her to explain why but Kendall freaks out, still refuses to say who she is and runs away. Erica is angry to hear about Kendall and Bianca's altercation as well as more of Kendall's various sabotage attempts of her wedding and irate, goes to confront her but finds Myrtle instead. Myrtle defends Kendall and urges Erica not to blow up at her until she listens to Kendall, saying she's young and lonely. Erica, though saying she knows this and believing she "understands everything about Kendall," explaining she gave Kendall a chance because she knows she's struggling and has been where Kendall is, contends she won't tolerate Kendall's behavior anymore and demands Myrtle send Kendall to her right away. After she leaves, a nervous Kendall is revealed to have overheard all this and Myrtle reminds Kendall that Erica is "not a mind-reader" so she needs to tell Erica the truth about who she is now. Defeated, Kendall explains she wanted to tell Erica everything but Erica cut her off with lectures instead and bitterly complains about Bianca. She decides to run away and as she quickly begins to pack, daydreams about a fantasy mother/daughter reunion between her and Erica. Her runaway attempt is halted when Erica finds her. Hopeful that Erica has realized the truth, she is disappointed when Erica remains oblivious to who she really is and confronts her over her continued sabotage of her wedding, which Kendall freely admits, firing her (Kendall: "You got here pretty quickly. Your broomstick must be turbo-charged.") As Kendall angrily confirms her schemes but speaks at cross purposes in reference to her true identity, Erica says Kendall is an "angry young girl" and demands to know why Kendall is so hostile towards her after she has taken her in by giving her a job and a roof over her head, realizing this isn't actually about a job but Kendall is keeping something from her. A resentful Kendall is about to exclaim she is her daughter too but their confrontation is interrupted when Erica is notified of Bianca being hurt in a horse-back riding accident and rushes off to the hospital. Kendall, jealous of the attention Bianca receives over her injury, expects Erica to realize who she is but, disappointed and shaken, she furiously blurts out the truth to her. Shocked, Erica initially doesn't believe her and becomes angry but is further stunned when Kendall asks her if she remembers Phoenix and first thinks Kendall only discovered she gave birth to another daughter and is trying to exploit her. As soon as Kendall thrusts her adoption records at Erica naming her as Kendall's birth mother, Erica takes the papers and realizes Kendall is her child that she gave up for adoption. Crushed, Kendall feels unwanted and runs away from the hospital to hide at the Pine Cone motel as Erica feels horrible for treating Kendall like an employee, wishing she believed her and somehow recognized Kendall was her daughter right away. Erica reveals to Dimitri that she was raped when she was 14 years old and became pregnant, having nearly blocked the entire event from her mind. She starts to remember the night of her rape again.

As a distraught Kendall tears up her journaled hopes and dreams, Erica frantically searches for Kendall with Dimitri. Upset with everyone who kept Kendall's identity a secret from her, Erica becomes angry at her mother when she discovers Mona suspected Kendall was her daughter but didn't tell her and it is revealed they kept this secret together after Kendall was born. She is upset at Mona for having Kendall investigated instead of coming directly to her so she could know Kendall is her daughter, also angry with Myrtle for keeping the truth from her and blames both for Kendall’s resulting anger/disappearance, yelling at everyone for this and feels they mishandled things by not coming to her with Kendall’s secret. When Erica wants to call Kendall's parents to find her, believing they didn't tell Erica that Kendall knew she was her mother either, Myrtle reveals the Harts kept Kendall's adoption hidden from her. She explains Kendall accidentally overheard her parents talking about her adoption, kept this information to herself, and found out Erica was her mother when she was old enough to search on her own, saying Kendall is stubborn and determined to make her own decisions, wanting to tell Erica the truth in her own way. Worried, Erica wants to find Kendall herself and make things right but Dimitri convinces her to hire back private detectives to find her, locating an angry but hurt Kendall shortly after. Kendall relents and agrees to talk. Erica wants to get to know Kendall but though Kendall agrees with Erica that she came to Pine Valley because she wanted Erica to be her mother, she claims she's not interested anymore. Kendall asks what was wrong with her as a baby for Erica to give her away. Erica insists it had nothing to with Kendall but says she wasn't ready to be a mother at that point because she was a teenager. Kendall is angry that Erica didn't publicly reveal that she had another daughter, Erica replying that she "doesn't owe the public the details of (her) private life," and Kendall agrees, accusing her of abandoning her, "No, not even the kid you tossed away." However, Erica argues she didn't abandon her and did the best thing for both of them when Kendall was born by giving her up for adoption, saying she believed it was better for Kendall to be raised by a "loving, devoted couple" rather than a "traumatized teenager." Kendall is still angry but becomes confused when Erica vaguely explains it was a painful time in her life. She asks about her father and, despite Erica's efforts to protect Kendall from the truth of how she was conceived and attempts to lead her away from the subject, insisting they don't need to discuss him as he is not important in her or Kendall's life, Kendall is determined to know who he was and becomes desperate, pleading for Erica to tell her. Kendall is stunned when Erica reluctantly reveals that she became pregnant with her by rape but she avoids revealing the rapist's identity, only telling Kendall that he was a friend of her father's when Kendall asks. Struggling to understand, a troubled Kendall asks if the police caught him but Erica reveals she never told anybody about the attack because she felt too ashamed and didn't tell her mother at first until after she discovered she was pregnant. Trying to get Kendall to imagine being "even younger than (she) is now" and pregnant, Erica explains she didn't realize she was pregnant until her 5th month, attributing her body changes to typical teenaged development, and when Kendall asks when she knew, Erica explains she learned about her pregnancy when her mother saw her step out from the shower. Erica gently tries to have Kendall understand why she had to give her up because she was too young to raise her and tells her she "couldn't take care of (her) own baby" at that age, asking Kendall to imagine if she could raise a baby at her own age. Kendall admits she can't answer what she'd do if she were pregnant. Erica changes topics and asks why Kendall tried to ruin her wedding and didn't tell her she was her daughter in the beginning. Kendall explains she wanted to hurt Erica as much as she felt Erica hurt her by putting her up for adoption. Erica becomes concerned that the Harts neglected her but Kendall confesses the Harts treated her lovingly and didn't even tell her she was adopted. Erica explains to Kendall she wants to be a mother to her. A conflicted Kendall hesitates, becoming insecure she won't measure up to Erica's standards and believes Erica just thinks she needs to try. However, she agrees to work at a mother-daughter relationship with Erica. Erica welcomes the young woman into her life and has Kendall live with her as her daughter.

Kendall explains further about her parents keeping her adoption a secret and learning about it when Mona apologizes to Kendall for not revealing her suspicions and understands she must be as angry as Erica is with her, revealing she realized who Kendall was after seeing her birthmark at Erica's engagement party, "In a flash, I saw myself holding Erica's baby the day she was born and seeing that birthmark," Kendall is angry at her for having her investigated instead of saying something. Mona relents that perhaps she should have come to Kendall or Erica with her suspicions first but explains she had to be certain Kendall was Erica’s daughter before she told Erica about it to avoid hurting her in case she was wrong, deciding not to say anything after the Harts swore Kendall wasn't adopted. Kendall explains the Harts never told her she was adopted but she overheard them talking one night discussing their dog's age as being the same time they adopted Kendall. When Mona tells her, "Oh, sweetheart, such a traumatic way for you to find out," Kendall clarifies about her parents, "They weren't being mean or anything. It wasn't like that. I didn't ask any questions. I just filed it away until I was old enough to find out the truth, the whole truth. They still don't know that I know." She is angry at Mona for giving her away but Mona explains Erica was too young to raise her, that some of Kendall's experience can be shared by Erica because Erica idolized her father and he left her as a child. Mona tells her that it was her choice to give Kendall up for adoption, having told Erica that it was the only right thing to do by giving her to a loving family, "You're angry and bitter and I understand that but don't blame your mother. If you have to hate someone, Kendall, hate me. Not Erica." Erica overhears this and makes up with Mona, thanking her for thinking of what's best for her, and says to Kendall, "I'm sure you think that your mother will never win any prizes but your grandmother is the best in the world," telling her they can move on, that they have so much to look forward to and they can be a real family, urging Kendall to give it a chance. Kendall starts to agree but when Bianca interrupts at this point, she becomes insecure and closes up again. However, she softens when Mona offers to do something with her but Kendall turns her down, though she agrees to another day. After she hurries to her room, Mona assures a worried Erica that she will win Kendall's trust in her.

That month, Kendall is touched when Erica makes her a bridesmaid to stand alongside her and Bianca. Bianca is confused why Erica is making such an effort with Kendall and remembers how mean Kendall has been to her. She is furious to learn Kendall is her sister when Erica finally tells her that Kendall is also her daughter, jealous and insecure about no longer being Erica's only child. Over the next months, Erica makes an effort to bond the girls as sisters but, though they try somewhat and occasionally have a moment, Kendall and Bianca continually argue. In June 1993, Erica publicly announces Kendall as her daughter to the world in her wedding announcement. Kendall is moved when Erica shows her the newspaper, promising she'll never forget this or doubt Erica again and hugs her but, to Kendall's horror, Erica invites the Harts to Pine Valley when she realizes Kendall is dragging out telling her adoptive parents the truth. Kendall maintains that the Harts lied to her and resists telling her parents anything, unhappy she was kept in the dark her whole life. Erica gives Kendall a motherly lecture about maturity, saying Kendall doesn’t always know what’s best and though she understands why Kendall did what she did, they were mistakes Kendall made in not being honest with her or the Harts about who she was. Kendall wonders, “I don’t know why I have to be the only one who’s honest,” and complains she should get to run her own life. Explaining that Charlie told her how much the Harts adore Kendall (in contrast to what Kendall initially claimed) and Kendall needs to stop testing people before giving them a chance, Erica disagrees Kendall is mature enough to make these decisions and lays down the law that there will be no more secrets, saying either she or Kendall will tell her parents everything. Realizing she has no choice, Kendall sulks an acceptance of this but freaks out and briefly runs away from Erica’s house. After Erica and Dimitri welcome the Harts when they arrive, who are initially worried about Kendall, Erica says Kendall is alright and explains she has a good reason for calling them. Erica goes to get Kendall but panics when she finds Kendall missing from her room, frantically revealing to a stunned Bill and Alice that she is Kendall’s birth mother and sends Dimitri to find her. Erica is initially angry with the Harts for keeping Kendall's adoption a secret and the way Kendall found out about it, saying she wanted the best for her baby and for her to be raised by "parents who would do the absolute best for her", that her mother Mona promised her this, "You could have made (Kendall) understand that adoption was an act of love on all our parts. I was too young to raise her but we all wanted the best for her," but they hurt Kendall by keeping her adoption hidden like a ''"dirty little secret." '' When she angrily blames them for Kendall's disappearance and issues, Alice is devastated and Bill says they love Kendall, mortified by how Kendall found out. They explain that they planned to tell Kendall on her birthday, "But she was so happy. After the presents and the blowing out the candles, we couldn't bear to ruin the day. We were afraid that she'd feel as if she wasn't ours or believe how much we loved her." Erica becomes sympathetic, seeing how much the Harts love Kendall and understands, explaining she has another daughter as well, but is still unhappy over how everything was handled with Kendall and explains to Bill and Alice that Kendall is not handling any of this well. Meanwhile, a fuming Kendall is found by Dimitri at a bus station. When Dimitri explains her mother is worried and Kendall snaps, "Would that be Erica or Alice Hart?" he answers "Erica" but Kendall retorts, "Oh. That one. I think she'll get over it." He tries to drag an unwilling Kendall back home but Kendall refuses, saying she doesn't have "any real mothers," as Dimitri lectures her she has two homes with two mothers and both of them are worried while she is acting like a "spoiled brat," and insists Bianca is being more mature than she is. Kendall snarks, "Then introduce her to my parents. Maybe they'll take her instead." She tries to go and get on the bus, telling Dimitri how certain she is that she's doing everyone a favor by leaving, but Dimitri grabs Kendall to drag her back to Erica's when a security guard interrupts them. Kendall is softened when Dimitri introduces himself as her father and by his explanation to the guard of her mothers being worried she's trying to run away. Dimitri tries to assure Kendall their new family will work. At Erica's house, Alice explains Kendall grew up idolizing Erica and remembers Kendall having Erica's magazine covers all over her room, believing Kendall only had a "celebrity crush," but wonders if Kendall somehow knew, asking Erica if she knew. Erica admits she had no idea who Kendall was at first and believed Kendall was a girl looking for a job, unhappy over hurting Kendall in the inadvertent way the Harts did by not recognizing her. As the Harts talk to Erica about Kendall as a young child, explaining how much they love Kendall but admit they never understood her because "(Kendall)'s always been so full of big ideas and plans while we tried to prepare her for the real world but she wouldn't listen," Alice adding, "She was so sure she could get everything she wanted and so headstrong,” Erica realizes how similar this sounds to herself and, asking to see Kendall's childhood photos, gazes at one just before Dimitri returns with Kendall then. Kendall is surprised by everybody's relief at her return but becomes sullen when Erica tells Kendall she told her parents everything. Kendall uneasily accepts their awareness of the truth and listens to her parents' apology but, still angry over being lied to, stubbornly avoids apologizing to her parents for keeping everything a secret when Erica pushes her to. The Harts are invited to attend Erica's wedding to Dimitri in support of Kendall. Mona, Erica, Bianca and Kendall share a moment as "three generations of Kane women" in front of the mirror the morning of Erica's wedding and the wedding goes well.

Dimitri, Erica, Kendall and Bianca all try to make it work as a family and the arrangement works for a brief time but an insecure Kendall is jealous of Bianca the two continue to bicker. Only able to visit Erica intermittently, Bianca is likewise insecure and jealous about sharing her mother when Erica and Kendall start spending time together (including thinking Kendall is "faking" her anxiety to get Erica's attention when Erica gives Kendall a mother/daughter pep talk before the wedding and publicly introduces her as her daughter) and spills ink on Kendall's bridesmaid dress, which matches hers, to keep her out of Erica's wedding party. She is angry when Erica changes both their gowns, having Bianca wear an older dress and Kendall wear one of Erica's dresses instead, also blaming her sister when Erica sometimes "takes (Kendall's) side" while trying to mediate their arguments but is sad when she feels Kendall doesn't want her around. Overwhelmed, Erica experiences handfuls with both daughters, anxiously working to ensure Bianca doesn't feel supplanted and insisting she has room for both while trying to build her relationship with Kendall. Jealous and hurt by the attentive relationship between Erica and Bianca and of the attention Bianca receives, Kendall makes a limited effort but accuses Bianca of trying to get her in trouble, manipulates her with a few mind games including convincing her to return home early to Seattle with her father in July 1993, and discreetly ruins Erica's strategies to win full custody of Bianca for fear of having to compete with Bianca for Erica's attention full time. She subtly encourages Bianca to run away from Seattle to Pine Valley in '''August 1993. '''Realizing she may have gone too far when Bianca does go missing shortly after, she partially admits enough of what she did in order to help locate Bianca but then secretly manipulates Bianca into running away again and Bianca locks herself in the Wildwind mausoleum. Kendall hears her sister's cries and ignores them. However, she reveals Bianca's location later that night. Meanwhile, Kendall and Erica continue trying to develop a close mother-daughter relationship; doing style sessions, giving designer clothes/gifts to Kendall, an internship at Enchantment and going on off-screen outings throughout the next months. Though they have moments where they start to bond, Bianca interrupts and walls are back up when Erica's attention is diverted from an increasingly resentful Kendall to Bianca, resulting in Kendall acting out. Kendall, seeking Erica's total love and approval, wants to please her and makes an effort to do so but feels uncertainty with her self-identity and her place in Erica's life and becomes embittered by not instantly receiving everything she is looking for from her mother. Earlier, in May 1993, Kendall once noticed Erica's fear of thunderstorms and, learning it was storming the night of Erica's attack, she worried she also reminds her of the night she was raped but Erica denied this and attempted to reach out to her but an insecure Kendall panicked and hurried off. Erica works to be the mother Kendall wants her to be and give Kendall the kind of love she is looking for from her but struggles with memories and reminders of her rape brought on with Kendall's sudden appearance back in her life. Both become frustrated when what Erica gives Kendall isn't enough, Kendall wanting her fantasy relationship with Erica immediately, having dreamed of a fairy tale-mother daughter reunion. In August 1993, Kendall's hurt increases when she pushes Erica to admit that while she cares about Kendall, does not love her like she loves Bianca. Erica confesses privately to Dimitri that she wants to love her in this way but keeps experiencing traumatic memories of her rape she is now forced to confront after Kendall came back, her arrival inadvertently triggering them, and attempts to disconnect Kendall from Fields. Kendall and Erica's already complicated relationship is also strained due to Erica being angered when Kendall acts out through sabotage against her (eg. ruining Erica's custody strategy, encouraging Bianca to run away, etc.), Erica becoming frustrated when it seems Kendall wants to be "not just included, but the center of attention at all times" to the exclusion of everyone else's needs. Dimitri, pushing to develop Erica and Kendall's relationship, counsels both Erica and a disheartened Kendall that they just need time to know each other as mother and daughter. He encourages Kendall, who admits she’s scared and struggling with her identity, to open up to Erica. Erica and Kendall continue to work on their mother-daughter relationship.

However, Kendall is still dissatisfied with what Erica gives her, is unable to give up her exaggerated expectations of her mother, and grows closer to Dimitri. Encouraging Kendall to open up, he becomes her primary confidante and though he considers himself as only a father to Kendall, Kendall consequently starts to develop an unrequited crush on her step-father but she keeps it hidden. That month, Kendall accidentally stumbles upon the discovery of her biological father's identity. Kendall starts watching a movie on TV and Erica joins her, noting it is a film of her father's but doesn't remember it well, but as she talks about the leading actress to Kendall and tries to remember which of her father's films it is, she freezes upon recognizing the leading man (Richard Fields) and runs out. Confused by Erica's reaction to the film, Kendall wonders what upset her, admits to Erica she doesn't know much about Richard Fields because he disappeared from publicity around the time she was born, but is horrified to realize he may have raped Erica, asking if he is her father. Erica denies to Kendall that Richard Fields is her father. However, after Kendall begs for all of the information and presses her, saying she needs to know, Erica reluctantly confirms it with a brief explanation. She explains to a troubled Kendall that she always wanted to keep this painful information from her and thus never wanted Kendall to know the truth of who her father was as she spent her own life needing to avoid Fields' movies/materials. When Kendall begins asking questions, Erica demands that Kendall completely forget about Richard Fields, that the only way for them to deal with this knowledge is to "let it go." Kendall promises she will forget him but is unable to let it go and becomes captivated by Hollywood movies and articles about her biological father, daydreaming him to be his Hollywood persona and will give her that instant love she longs for from Erica. Despite her promise, Kendall feels she needs to find out everything about her biological roots and secretly resolves to find Fields, keeping her search hidden from Erica. Dimitri discovers what she is doing and Kendall begs him not to tell Erica, saying she will "freak out" if she ever discovers her research. Kendall offers to ensure her search takes place elsewhere for its duration as she says she doesn't want to hurt her mother with it but explains she needs to know all about her biological roots. Dimitri surprises Kendall when he offers to help her search for Fields. Believing he is protecting both Kendall and Erica by controlling the search, in addition to ensuring that Erica does not find out, Dimitri aids Kendall in finding her birth father on the condition that Erica never discover they are searching for him. When he is confronted over this by Hayley’s boyfriend, Charlie, who understands Hayley and Kendall being naive enough to be compelled by their shared father complexes to uncover Fields but contends Dimitri should know better, Dimitri explains he wants Kendall to settle her issues about this so it can be over for everyone and they can grow as a family without Fields haunting them. He hires Hayley as a private investigator. Erica gets briefly suspicious when she finds Hayley and Kendall looking over a Fields playbill together in the house and freaks out upon seeing it. When Erica is also angry with Dimitri, blaming him for letting Kendall have the playbill at all, Kendall defends that Dimitri told her to get rid of it. Dimitri assures Erica that Kendall isn’t looking for him. Though Erica tells Kendall that she understands her need to find out something about a biological father, she says she can't allow it and has Kendall stop. Kendall promises her mother she's not looking and won't collect anything else of his. Despite warnings from Erica against locating or researching Richard Fields, Kendall continues her mission and during the successful operation to locate Fields, her crush on Dimitri grows.



Kendall gets to know Anton Lang, a medical student living at Wildwind as Dimitri's ward she met earlier in August after threatening him with a pitchfork when he surprises her in the stables. Anton takes an immediate liking to Kendall but, while everyone else likes Anton, Kendall finds his attention annoying and they bicker. Dimitri and Erica push to form a friendship between them, trying to get Kendall to have fun and make friends her own age with Anton and Hayley. Noticing Kendall's listlessness due to her father issues, Erica tries to get Kendall interested in Anton in October 1993 as a first romance to help alleviate Kendall's issues, but Kendall argues she and Anton only annoy each other, “So I don’t need any advice!” Erica believes Anton and Kendall have a crush on each other and tries to convince her of this, giving her boy advice (Erica: “Lucky for you, I am an expert, I could write a book on how to meet the man of your dreams and live happily ever after." Kendall: “I guess you could.”) Paralleling their father complexes and near-operatic love/hate reactions to guys, she explains she understands what Kendall is going through and Kendall promises she’ll try with Anton but she still finds Anton irritating while Anton, though curious about Kendall, is fed up with her. However, Erica asks him to keep being Kendall’s friend so Anton finds her in the stables but discovers her with her secret collection of material on Fields. Kendall freaks out at him ("Get a hint, Lurch!") and Anton explains he only wants to be friends. However, he confronts her about her obsession with "an old man" who was a "bad actor." Kendall breaks down, reveals it's her father and is devastated when she explains she was conceived when he raped her mother, and she has so many questions without answers. Anton, explaining he had no idea about this, sympathizes with Kendall and assures her answers will come with time. They come to an understanding and Anton admits he has wanted to know Kendall since they met, even after she threatened him with a pitchfork. Kendall is touched and she and Anton become closer. He promises to keep her search a secret. Remembering that after Erica explained to her she and Dimitri are both trying to protect Kendall by disallowing her from locating Fields and cites her own pain at finding her father again, saying she is grateful she's not looking for Fields, Kendall is uncomfortable and rethinks her search. However, things go downhill for everyone when Erica unwittingly discovers Kendall's forbidden research on her biological father shortly after in the Wildwind stables. Erica freaks out. She explains how Fields is not the movie star Kendall thinks he is but a monster she needs to destroy the fantasy of, that his publicity materials are nothing but lies which had deceived girls the way she was once deceived herself, and in a fit of hysteria, she falls into recounting her rape. Kendall is distraught to hear all this. When Erica goes to burn her collection, a distressed Kendall still desperately tries to stop her. However, Erica sets it on fire, forcefully holding a screaming Kendall away from her flaming collection, saying she is burning Fields and his lies, and is elated when she momentarily believes she has erased and "killed" Fields after Dimitri and Anton put the fire out. Afterward, Anton comforts Kendall who is crying, saying how she never wanted to hurt her mother but since Erica hasn't left her anything of her father, she needs to find him now, "I never wanted Erica to find out. I knew it would all be ruined if she did." Meanwhile, realizing what happened, Erica laments Kendall hearing the details of her rape and that she lost it but is upset Kendall broke her promise again; defending that she thought Kendall stopped looking like she said she would. She is upset to figure out Dimitri supported Kendall's search and Dimitri explains Kendall's need to find out her biological roots. Erica angrily replies, "So she did, she found me. And she found you. I have opened my life to her, you are a wonderful step-father to her, you are willing to do anything for her, anytime, any place. What is wrong with her? Why must she continue to do research on this deviant?" Dimitri defends Kendall's urge to find out who her father is but Erica refuses this and furiously asks, "To what? To romanticize a monster? To hurt me?" She forbids Kendall finding anything else about Fields as this can "only cause more pain. This can destroy (them) all," blaming Dimitri for not making Kendall understand this. When Kendall walks in, Erica gives her an ultimatum to give up her search, uncompromisingly forbidding Kendall a final time to find, research, or talk about Fields and suggests getting therapy for Kendall to talk about her father but has her never discuss it at the house. Kendall, traumatized by her conception and Erica's reaction to her collection, agrees and everyone in the house comes to a tense truce. However, Kendall secretly increases her efforts to hide her search from Erica. Dimitri tries to stop her search but Kendall, still needing to find out everything about whom she came from, cries that after learning what Fields did to Erica, needs to confront him. Dimitri reminds Kendall that he raped her mother and Kendall screams, "I know that! I know that, and he has to pay for that." She explains she needs to meet Fields to condemn him, "He should spend his last few days terrified of burning in hell." Dimitri agrees on the condition that she sever all ties to Fields and she meets him only once. Kendall promises. After finding Kendall's collection of material on Fields, Erica begins experiencing flashbacks to her rape.

Kendall, Dimitri, and Hayley find Fields in November 1993 in Los Angeles. Fields' former agent warns them off of him when he confides sexual accusations made against Fields but Kendall still decides to visit him. Hayley and Dimitri want to be present but they reluctantly let Kendall see him alone when she insists. A troubled Kendall asks Fields about what he did to Erica on her 14th birthday and Fields lies with a deluded account of that night. Kendall leaves the room and tells Dimitri and Hayley she has decided to tell him she is his daughter over their objections and though they try to keep her away from Fields after her initial meeting with him, Kendall returns to Fields' room and interrogates Fields further about what happened on Erica's 14th birthday. Fields claims Erica wasn't upset and the love-making was consensual. She is skeptical, telling him Erica became pregnant with her from that night and he is her father. After Fields insists that if Erica had told him about Kendall, he would have raised her, Kendall considers this:

"Everything anyone's ever told me about my life was a lie. The adoptive parents lied to me, Erica lied. Everything I found out, I found out on my own."

- Kendall, November 1993

Dimitri, looking for Kendall, arrives to see Fields hugging her and immediately attacks Fields. After being pulled off by Hayley, Dimitri warns Fields to stay away from Kendall, furiously telling him that he knows what he did Erica, and threatens his life as Hayley continues to caution Kendall about how dangerous Fields is and the allegations/charges made against him for sexual assault. However, Kendall visits Fields again after claiming she just needs time alone. Upset, Kendall finally confronts him about raping her mother. Fields lies that he never raped Erica, the sex was "consensual" but when Kendall notes Erica was only 14, Fields claims that Erica said she was 18 and he could never force himself on anybody. A dubious Kendall continues to interrogate him about what he did to Erica, that his story doesn't match Erica's traumatic account, and uneasily questions why Erica would lie about being raped. Fields deceives her with a completely false account, saying Erica needed a cover story after she became pregnant. Playing into Kendall's vulnerability, Fields insists he would have raised Kendall as his own had Erica told him about her and claims he and Erica were in love, despite the extreme age difference, using Kendall's own crush on Dimitri by saying that Erica had a crush on him. Confused, Kendall is initially doubtful, but is desperate to believe she was not conceived in rape and starts to believe Fields' lies, warming to his apparently instant approval of her as his daughter. Fields works to turn Kendall against Erica and is satisfied when Kendall, after some consideration, now starts believing his version, insisting Erica lied about being raped just to hurt her by justifying giving her up for adoption, bitterly claiming,

"She couldn't have you all to herself so she tried to make me hate you! Selfish, conniving- I swear, I will never believe another word she tells me again as long as I live. (...) I was inconvenient to her so she just gave me away to the Harts. They pretended they were my real parents the same way that Erica pretended that you raped her. I guess I pretended too."

- Kendall, November 1993

Fields softens Kendall when he convinces her how he wished he could have watched her grow up and Kendall angrily says Erica hurts everyone, including her step-father and admits her crush on Dimitri, thinking she loves him. As Fields advises her to beware of Erica, a concerned Hayley and Dimitri arrive. Dimitri reminds Kendall of what her mother has done for her, that Erica gave her a home, brought her into her life as her daughter, and did for her "what any mother would do for her daughter," asking Kendall if (continuing to see Fields) is how she shows her gratitude. Kendall becomes torn and Dimitri warns her that if she wants to bring "the man who caused (her) mother a life time of pain into (Kendall's) life," this could destroy her relationship with Erica and urges her to keep building the relationship she and her mother have struggled to establish together. Dimitri has a conflicted Kendall make a choice between Fields and Erica. Kendall chooses Erica. He has Kendall promise she will sever contact with her biological father. Kendall agrees but discreetly takes Fields' calls at Wildwind, wanting contact with both her birth parents. Simultaneously, Erica's flashbacks to the night of her rape worsen after the October incident in the stables. Kendall begins to suspect it's herself that is prompting Erica this pain but Erica denies it, saying not everything is about Kendall, and explains again how she cannot tolerate the prospect of unearthing Fields. However, she starts unwittingly seeing Fields in Kendall's place at times, beginning to freak out at Kendall who is confused and tries to help Erica. Kendall is hurt/upset by Erica's reactions and later rants to Anton about Erica's supposed lies about her father, unable to accept her father raped her mother. Buying Fields' story to her, Kendall reveals to Anton that she is angry at Erica because she believes Erica "trundled (her) off to nowhere" to be raised by other people just to cover-up an illegitimate pregnancy, also bitter that Erica didn't tell Fields about her and therefore, feels she was "cheated" out of a "golden life." Anton is skeptical of Kendall's beliefs but covers for her to Dimitri when it is nearly revealed she gave Wildwind's phone number to Fields. Fields calls Kendall back at Wildwind one night during a storm and Erica has a panic-attack after she answers the phone to hear Fields' voice while she was having another nightmare about him. Due to increasing nightmares and flashbacks to her rape, Erica realizes despite her efforts, she can't be the mother Kendall needs her to be and is failing in her efforts to give Kendall the type of love she wants from her. She feels guilty about giving Kendall up for adoption and for associations she makes between Kendall and her rape as it's not Kendall's fault but, due to the memories/reminders she triggers, can't help it and needs her to move out of Wildwind, explaining to Dimitri she has no choice but to have Kendall move out because she can't handle being reminded of Richard Fields anymore, never dealt with her rape, and remembering Fields has taken over her life. Instead, Erica offers to pay for Kendall's apartment and education. Dimitri protests and they argue, Erica wondering why he always defends Kendall. Dimitri, though believing Erica sending Kendall away won't solve anything, agrees to have Kendall move out but wants to be the one to ask Kendall to find an apartment to soften the blow and Erica agrees. Though Erica, Dimitri, and Anton tell Kendall this isn't a rejection, a hurt Kendall is crushed by the request. However, she fakes her willingness to accept the arrangement to move to an apartment in town but secretly vows she won't be the one leaving Wildwind.

Her friendship with Anton continues to grow. Although, over the previous months, he figures out Kendall has a crush on Dimitri. Kendall repeatedly denies this and fed up, then kisses Anton just to prove him “wrong” in October 1993. Anton facetiously asks her if she has a crush on him and Kendall shuts him down. When Anton notes her inexperience and wants to try the kiss again, Kendall accepts but freaks out, pulls away, saying she can't. She confirms her inexperience, explaining she can’t stand to be touched like that, remembering when she found out her mother was 14 when she had her,

"I didn't know that she was raped. I had all these visions of my mother, like me, just fooling around in the back seat of some guy's car and the next thing you knew there was this baby. I wasn't about to let that happen to me, I didn't want to know about sex, or anything even connected with it. To me, sex was like the enemy. It was something waiting to grab me and to destroy my entire life, only I wasn't going to let it. I wasn't even going to get close."

- Kendall to Anton, October 1993

Anton gradually tries to open Kendall up to the idea of a relationship with him and they become closer over the next months. However, in November 1993, a spiteful Kendall blames Erica for having to leave Wildwind and deliberately "slips" to her mother that she went to L.A. After she claims to Erica that she is "excited" to be on her own for the first time and Erica gives her a sermon on the wonders of independence regarding Kendall's apartment plans, Kendall accidentally-on-purpose tells Erica that she and Hayley went to L.A. Erica immediately questions Kendall why she went to L.A. and Kendall quickly covers, saying she and Hayley are just planning a trip there next year ("Like, you know, total independence!"), but Erica is suspicious. When she finds out Kendall has visited her biological father in California and discovers Dimitri's part in it, she is furious and rages at them both. Erica slaps her daughter, calls her a sneaky, vicious little brat, and after an infuriated tirade in which she goes over Kendall's history of lies, an upset Kendall is devastated when she shouts she shares qualities with her biological father for hurting her so much. Erica leaves Dimitri, blames him for allowing Kendall to find Fields over loyalty to their marriage & not making Kendall understand her associated trauma, and compares him to her rapist for finding him. In Erica's absence, a distraught Kendall has a mental breakdown as a child of rape. Though Dimitri is initially suspicious and angered by Kendall's "slips," he asks Kendall to stay at Wildwind after her breakdown. However, Kendall deliberately thwarts a reconciliation attempt between Erica and Dimitri in December 1993 by allowing her mother to discover her still living there right after Edmund lectures a sulking Kendall about complex adult relationships, telling her to let Erica and Dimitri work things out. Upset, Erica questions Dimitri's reasons for having her stay in her absence, saying that Kendall agreed to move out. She says that Kendall isn't his blood relative but he still seems to choose whatever Kendall wants over their marriage, becoming suspicious he feels more than paternally for Kendall. Dimitri tries to explain to Erica that he only cares for Kendall because she is her child. Erica thinks it's more than that and walks out on him. Kendall tries eavesdropping but is pulled away by Edmund. Edmund tells Dimitri, who maintains that Kendall is just a thoughtless child, immature, and naive, that Kendall is trying to sabotage her mother's life, "She wants to get back at her mom. Why not make waves with you and Erica?" Dimitri denies this is the case but starts flashing back to Kendall's explanation of her "accidental" slips.

Meanwhile, Kendall's adoptive mother, Alice, calls and wants her to return home to Florida but Kendall still wants another chance with Erica. Kendall sincerely pleads with Erica, saying she has needed Erica all her life, that the Harts couldn't give her what Erica could as a mother, and she only wants to find the "missing pieces of (her) life". Erica tells Kendall that they know each other now, she gave her answers to her questions, but she can't fill in the missing years of her life for her and is grateful to Alice for doing that in her place. Saying that she hopes Kendall can understand why she is hurt and angered by Kendall's betrayal of finding her rapist when Kendall says she is sorry for making her angry, Erica explains she has always tried to do the best for Kendall; from the time Kendall was a baby and was too young to raise her, ensuring she "gave (her) baby to a decent home with loving parents,” to later on when she took her in, that everybody did the best they could for her, but nothing is enough for Kendall. Kendall says her dream was for their relationship to work but Erica says that Kendall wanted her "perfect fantasy" of it to work and lectures her that perfection doesn't start with lying about her identity when she arrived, dishonesty, or with scheming. Kendall apologizes, that she only wanted for Erica to want her, and quickly asks her to remember they had good times as well. Erica responds she remembers, using it as an example to remind Kendall of what she did to include her in her life as her daughter publicly and privately, but is unhappy Kendall still found Fields in spite of this. Kendall explains that though Erica gave her answers to most of her questions, she didn't answer her questions about Fields, trying to explain why she needed to meet him and swears she'd do it differently if she could. Erica insists what she did tell Kendall about Fields should have been enough. She clarifies Kendall's trip to Los Angeles isn't the issue; the problem is she can’t fulfill Kendall’s exaggerated expectations of an idealized mother-daughter relationship. She explains that, though she tried, she can no longer try to be the fantasy mother Kendall dreamed her to be and what she can give to Kendall isn't enough. When Kendall says she'll be anything Erica wants, she just wants to be loved, Erica implores Kendall to return home to the Harts, that her parents are waiting for her, and they already provide the type of love she seeks. She gently tells a shattered Kendall that, "the most loving thing (she) can do for (Kendall) is to ask (her), please, stop hurting (her)self this way," asking her to say good-bye''. ''Crushed, Kendall quietly leaves Erica's office. Though Erica explains to Edmund she is pained over letting Kendall go, she voices her suspicions that Dimitri feels more than paternal friendship for Kendall due to his strong attachment to her.

Kendall is devastated by her talk with Erica and finds Dimitri at Wildwind. Insisting Erica turned her back on both of them and she can replace her mother in his life, Kendall confesses her love for her step-father. He becomes impatient with her as Kendall claims she’s “grown up a lot from the pathetic little waif that landed on his doorstep” thanks to him. When Dimitri tells her to credit Erica, Kendall ignores this. Mistaking Dimitri's paternal affection for her as a romantic love, Kendall believes he loves her and throws herself at him. Dimitri is is horrified and clarifies to Kendall that he only loves her as a daughter and could only ever love her in this way. Kendall incorrectly interprets his paternal love for her as romantic, insisting he does whatever she wants, treats her as special, doesn’t pretend to love her and doesn't lose patience with her like she insists everyone else does. Kendall admits she didn’t mean to fall in love with him but Dimitri tells her she is confused and that Kendall doesn't know what she's saying, apologizing for Kendall misunderstanding his paternal affection for her. He goes to call a doctor to get her psychiatric help but Kendall interprets this as proof he loves her romantically. Dimitri rejects her, devastating Kendall, and he explains he doesn't love her but loves her mother and cares for Kendall only because Erica is her mother, saying he cherishes everything "precious" to her. Upset, Kendall denies the latter and maintains she only wanted Erica's love but tells Dimitri she's only "a burden" to Erica and believes her mother despises her. Dimitri denies this, saying Erica's difficulties aren't about Kendall but with being raped/Fields. Admitting she is outraged at her mother for giving her up for adoption and not raising her herself, Kendall now believes Fields' version that Erica was not raped by him but used it to cover up an illegitimate pregnancy "because good girls didn't get knocked up in those days" and is angry Erica never told Fields about her. Furious at Kendall's words, Dimitri roughly shakes her, telling her she shouldn't ever say that. This is unknowingly witnessed by Erica through the window when she is prompted to see Dimitri after having a nightmare wherein Fields danced with a 14-year old Kendall in Erica's place at her birthday party with Kendall looking the same as Erica did, but after Erica told Fields to get away from Kendall, Dimitri rescued Kendall and danced with her in Fields' place, Erica's cries for them to stop going unheard due to her being trapped in a plastic cylinder. She is worried by the scene but flees when she hallucinates Kendall as herself and Dimitri as Fields. Having earlier told Mona that she felt it was best for Kendall, herself, and everyone to send Kendall to her home with the Harts, explaining how doing so was a difficult situation but it was the right thing to do, wanting Kendall to appreciate her loving parents, she hopes to put the rape behind her now but reveals to Mona what she saw happen between Kendall and Dimitri. Erica becomes troubled and wonders if she's projecting her trauma onto another, seeing herself in Kendall. Remembering how she saw Dimitri arguing with Kendall at Wildwind, she says she felt scared for Kendall. Erica explains she felt a maternal urge to protect Kendall but was too frightened when she started hallucinating Kendall as herself and Dimitri as Richard Fields.

Dimitri realizes Kendall has been deliberately acting out against Erica, angrily accusing Kendall of sabotaging her. Blaming Fields for having Kendall believe his warped deceits, he is also furious to realize Kendall is still in contact with Fields and that she broke her promises to sever contact with him. Kendall admits she's talking to Fields but earnestly cries she just wanted Erica's approval, that she went to Erica and "begged her for another chance," and wants, more than anything, for Erica to love her. She says she would have done anything to start over again with her mother, but was sent back to the Harts. When Dimitri responds that Erica "was only thinking of what's best" for Kendall, Kendall gets increasingly upset and in a furious tirade, she screams, "Stop defending her! Erica Kane only does what's best for Erica Kane. She lies and says it's for my own good. Well, the greatest lie she ever told was the one about my father. She's the monster, not him! You want to turn your back on me, fine! Well, you and Erica are both monsters! You two deserve each other!" She refuses to give up her father, furious at Erica for giving her up. Dimitri realizes the extent of Kendall's duplicity and says he can't excuse her behavior, calling her "selfish," "vindictive," and saying "(she) is so spiteful, (she) is drowning in it." He summarizes her motivations in paragraph:

"You don't love anyone but yourself. You only wanted me as the final nail to be hammered into Erica's coffin and why? Because she gave you up the day you were born, but not for the reasons you think. Not out of selfishness or inconvenience or shame, but out of love. (...) Erica was a child when she gave birth to you. How was she supposed to raise you, look after you, provide for you? The greatest gift she could give you was to give you to a family that could give you the things that she couldn't. Stability, hope, love, a future, Kendall. You owe Erica your life. And as lives go, it hasn't been so bad. Bill and Alice Hart are good honest people but it wasn't enough for you. Nothing ever is. You won't be happy until you've trashed the lives of everyone who ever dared care about you. (...) The one day Erica gave you away, that's the day you are hellbent on making everyone pay for."

- Dimitri to Kendall, December 1993

Kendall protests this and, raging, threatens to kill herself but a livid Dimitri throws her out of Wildwind. Devastated, Kendall finds Anton and tells him she wants to kill herself because her life is "ruined," confiding her perception of events that happened with Dimitri and Erica. Anton comforts her and says that she and Erica just had another fight and they'll make up but Kendall doesn't think so. She is distraught to reveal that Erica sent her back home to the Harts. She is stunned when Anton suggests Erica was right to do so because Kendall hasn't seemed very happy at Wildwind, asking if it's that bad in Florida. Kendall replies, "Not according to Erica. She's so certain that the Harts love me," and says Erica "has to believe that" because she "dumped (her) with them." She claims Bill and Alice don't care. She admits her crush on Dimitri when Anton brings him up and says she told him she loved him that night, "I didn't mean to, it just kind of came out," but explains how he rejected her. Kendall summarizes:

"Why is it nobody loves me as much as I love them? It's how it's always been. I'm on the outside looking in. It's like I watch everyone else live their lives and mine never even starts. No matter how sweet Bill and Alice were to me, no matter how many presents they gave me on my birthday, or how many friends I had, I knew that something was missing. I didn't know what it was but I just knew there was more. I tried to pretend like I was fine, that I was perfectly satisfied but I couldn't keep it up. I needed to find it. Whatever, whoever it was."

- Kendall to Anton, December 1993

Anton insists he's on her side as Kendall genuinely wonders what's wrong with her, "Why do I feel so terrible? What am I doing wrong? No one ever told me life was supposed to hurt like this." After he sympathetically hears her out and says nothing is wrong with her, he admits he likes her. Kendall doesn't believe him but Anton tells her she won him over from the moment she came at him with a pitchfork, "You were so intense and so lovely." Kendall is emotional and starts to give in, allowing him to seduce her, and loses her virginity that night. The next morning, Anton believes they had a nice time, "You look so pretty," but Kendall appears troubled by the experience and frantically finds Erica. Erica is concerned by Kendall's hysteria, asking Kendall if there was an accident and if she's hurt. Still crying, Kendall denies this and Erica grows increasingly worried when Kendall vaguely mentions a "he," how angry Dimitri was and that she tried to stop it but didn't know how. Erica remembers witnessing Dimitri shake Kendall. When she pushes to get information out of Kendall and Kendall struggles to answer, Erica, aware of Kendall's virginity, asks her if she had sex with someone, "Was it Anton? Did Anton seduce you?" Kendall tearfully responds, "No. It wasn't Anton. It was Dimitri," and implies she was raped. Erica is immediately infuriated by Kendall's claim, calling it a lie and can't believe Dimitri would do this to Kendall. However, when Kendall swears by it, saying it happened last night, Erica flashes back to calling Wildwind about Kendall that night, asking where she was but was told she went out. When she asked to speak with Dimitri, Erica remembers being told he was at the Hunting Lodge, but it is uncertain he was alone. Erica wavers in her disbelief but angrily accuses Kendall of lying to "get back at (her)" as payback and, referencing Kendall's history of lying, says she's "lying more to punish (her)." Kendall asks why she would lie about something so awful and Erica says it's because their relationship didn't go the way Kendall wanted and Kendall didn't get her way, "And now you're making up something else to hurt me." Kendall swears she's not lying but Erica refuses to believe Dimitri seduced her. However, Erica wavers further in her disbelief when Kendall vocalizes her fear of being pregnant, guilt-tripping her mother when she cries she is unable to take care of a baby but can't give her own child up either and begs to be taken to a doctor. Erica still wants to uncover any duplicity and insists on taking Kendall to the hospital where Dr. Joe Martin examines her. He confirms to a perturbed Erica that Kendall did have sex for the first time within the past 12 hours. She is further distressed when Dr. Martin, noting the bruises on her arms looking like "the result of perhaps someone grabbing her and holding her too tightly," speculates Kendall might have been raped. Erica remembers Dimitri roughly shaking Kendall. She has Kendall tell her what happened that night with Dimitri. Pleased with Erica's attention, Kendall makes up a convincing account of Dimitri attacking her, this aligning with Erica's own recollections of her rape and of Dimitri shaking Kendall, and Erica comes to envision her rapist's face morphing into Dimitri's. Believing Dimitri raped Kendall, a furious and bewildered Erica leaves to confront Dimitri at Wildwind. Though he initially refuses to tell Erica exactly what happened the previous night with Kendall, Erica is upset and pushes for details, remembering Kendall's account to her of what happened with Dimitri. He unsuccessfully tries to tell her of Kendall's deceptions and that Kendall was actually trying to sabotage her. Erica interprets his change of attitude toward Kendall as proof he attacked her and, incensed, reveals she saw him with her daughter the previous night, yelling that he shook Kendall and hurt her. Dimitri denies he hurt Kendall in any way and explains he was trying to shake some sense into Kendall for her own good as Erica would do in his position, but Erica, recalling Dr. Martin's examination of Kendall being bruised and having sex for the first time within the past 12 hours, believes he is lying. She becomes more furious at Dimitri's explanation to her that Kendall came on to him, believing he is blaming Kendall for his apparent attack on her. As Dimitri denies that he ever a laid hand on Kendall to attack her and says Kendall is lying to hurt her, Erica further correlates him to her own rapist when Dimitri rages, "Whatever happens to Kendall, she asked for it." An enraged Erica screams at Dimitri, "You did it, didn't you? You raped my daughter!" He categorically denies raping Kendall and his defense of himself and attempts to explain otherwise only upset Erica further. When Dimitri's words against Kendall's accusation morph into Fields' words and flashbacks, Erica hallucinates him as Richard Fields and stabs Dimitri with a letter opener.

Meanwhile, Dr. Martin brings in a police officer for Kendall, panicking Kendall, who refuses to go through with any post-rape procedures but Dr. Martin explains to the officer that Erica and Kendall were "very upset" when they arrived and tells Kendall she was ''"traumatized."  Kendall cries, "I never said anything to Erica about rape, I never used that word!"'' and refuses to press charges, begging for something to prevent pregnancy. She becomes more agitated as the police officer gently urges her to come forward but Kendall refuses, pleading for a morning-after pill, which Dr. Martin gives her. Learning Erica has left, Dr. Martin asks for her to be paged and calls Mona in for Kendall. In the lobby, Anton arrives to see Kendall having just arrived from Erica's house looking for Kendall and told Erica took her to the hospital. Anton says he is a friend of Kendall's and Dr. Martin learns Anton was Kendall's sexual partner after Anton reveals he and Kendall were together the previous night. He assures him that the sex was consensual and Kendall "seemed fine, but this morning-" but Dr. Martin tells him, "This morning, according to her mother, she was hysterical. She was sobbing." Anton is confused, certain something else must have happened, and Dr. Martin demands to know why they didn't use protection. Anton admits that was a mistake, pleads to see Kendall, but Dr. Martin refuses, suggesting he wait for Kendall to contact him. When Mona arrives, she is concerned Kendall is in the hospital and when Kendall says she's fine, Mona explains that if that were true, Erica wouldn't have "dragged (her) to the emergency room." Kendall vaguely suggests Erica is at Wildwind but refuses to answer Mona's worried questions as to why Erica brought her in and would race to Dimitri's while Kendall was still in hospital, Kendall only saying, "She had to go. She knows what he did to me." Mona asks, "You mean, Erica is confronting Dimitri about you?" Kendall refuses to tell her what happened because she won't believe her, Mona begs Kendall, "Don't shut me out, I'm not someone off the street, I'm your grandmother." Kendall explains she can't say anything until Erica comes back and wonders if Erica believed her, "Maybe she's telling him off." They are interrupted when, elated, Erica returns to the hospital, claiming to have killed Richard Fields. She is horrified to learn she stabbed Dimitri before she is taken away to a hospital room. Kendall is stunned to learn Erica stabbed Dimitri and faints from the shock of this as Anton finds her. Erica tells her lawyer/friend, Jackson Montgomery, that initially she had appreciated Dimitri being a father to Kendall but found out he was helping Kendall sneak behind her back and says Dimitri sought to hurt her most when he attacked her daughter in the same way she was attacked by Fields, recounts her argument with Dimitri, and finally explains she stabbed Dimitri because he raped Kendall. Jackson explains that Erica came to the hospital saying she had killed Fields. Kendall is briefly detained in the hospital and, upon regaining consciousness, she is met by a confused Anton, who asks Kendall why she is there. Kendall replies she needed a morning-after pill after their unprotected sex. Anton vows his loyalty to her and explains that he is finished with Dimitri, angry because Dimitri has turned against Kendall, who earlier explained to Anton about Kendall's schemes and that he rejected her attempt to come onto him the night before but Anton can't believe it. However, Kendall is frightened that he will ruin everything and tells him to get out of her life, confusing Anton even more. Still wanting another shot at her relationship with Erica, Kendall visits her, wondering if she stabbed Dimitri because of what she said to defend her. While Erica admits what Kendall told her was mixed in there, she reveals she was hallucinating Richard Fields when she stabbed Dimitri. Disappointed, Kendall becomes spiteful again and tries to see Dimitri but a livid Dimitri wakes up and throws her out of his hospital room. A resentful Kendall vows revenge on both her mother and step-father for their rejection. After being detained in the hospital for a short while, Erica is arrested for the attempted murder of Dimitri. At Wildwind, Anton is concerned when Kendall tells him about Dimitri being stabbed but she assures him that he'll pull through. She tells him that Erica is delusional and imagining things, explaining how Erica hallucinated stabbing Fields. However, Anton is skeptical and realizes, "Tell me, Kendall, did your mother stab Dimitri because of you?" Kendall quickly tries denying her part in it, petulantly insisting Erica never listens to her anyway, when Jackson also comes to see Kendall and explains Erica stabbed Dimitri after Kendall told her that Dimitri had raped her. When he asks Kendall about Dimitri forcing her into sex, Kendall lies by claiming that she didn't covey to Erica anything like that, telling Jackson that Dimitri is her step-father, "only thinks of him as a dad," and states, "He never laid a hand on me!" Jackson presses Kendall and says he's trying to help her mother. Kendall suggests that Erica might be having a breakdown because she was hallucinating Richard Fields, "And now she's claiming that her husband, the most perfect man on this planet, raped her daughter? And you think that's normal?" Jackson reminds Kendall how she went to Erica that morning, wanting Erica to take her to the hospital because she was afraid she was pregnant. Uncomfortable, Kendall confirms this, only admitting that she was afraid she was pregnant. Jackson realizes Kendall must have had sex and presses Kendall for the identity of her partner that night. Kendall refuses until an angry Anton identifies himself to Jackson as being the one who slept with Kendall that night and confronts her.

Meanwhile, Erica is saying she had to confront and stab Dimitri because he raped her daughter, that she had "just cause" to attack him, and consequently flashed back to her own rape because of this wherein she hallucinated him as Fields. Jackson wonders if Erica somehow misheard Kendall saying that Dimitri had raped her but Erica is adamant she did not, referencing Kendall needing her to take her to the hospital where she was examined by a doctor who found Kendall had intercourse for the first time that night. Jackson reveals to her that Kendall is denying she ever told Erica that she accused Dimitri of raping her, explaining Anton was her sexual partner that night. Erica refuses this and is sure Jackson misunderstood Kendall, stating she asked Kendall if Anton seduced her but Kendall said no and insists Kendall had been raped by Dimitri because that's what Kendall told her and Erica saw Dimitri shake Kendall the night before so what Kendall told her made sense the next morning, asking why she would just come about Anton, and wants to talk to Kendall. Erica finds Kendall at Wildwind where she tries to coax her into admitting what Dimitri did to her, assuring Kendall she will support her "100%" and that she knows what she's going through, being attacked by somebody she admired. Panicking, Kendall avoids admitting what she said but Erica tries to have her to accept she was attacked. Kendall attempts to convince Erica she imagined the accusation of rape she made against Dimitri and claims she just went to Erica that morning for motherly advice about her first sexual experience with Anton. Unsettled by Kendall's denial, Erica refuses to accept this, is still certain Dimitri raped her, explaining she saw Dimitri manhandle Kendall on the night in question and demands to know why she is lying about being attacked. Kendall suggests Erica see a psychiatrist. Erica becomes more unsettled, momentarily believing she is losing it, but insists she is not confused, that Kendall is lying and presses her. Kendall cracks, admitting that she lied about Dimitri attacking her and she did it because she wants to hurt Erica and Dimitri "so bad, (she'd) die." Horrified, Erica asks Kendall if she has any idea what she's done, realizing Dimitri was telling her the truth when he said he never laid a hand on Kendall to violate her and about Kendall's schemes. Kendall reveals that she is furious over being given up for adoption, accusing Erica of "thr(owing her) away." Erica denies she threw Kendall away and Kendall cries that she would have done anything for Erica's love. Erica tries again to explain she can't be Kendall's "fantasy mother" anymore. A hurt Kendall angrily admits she lied about being raped by Dimitri because she now thinks Erica lied about being raped by Fields to avoid being labeled as a "slut." Stunned, Erica calls this a "sick and filthy lie." Kendall cries that Erica kept away her from a father she believes could have loved/raised her. Erica is outraged to realize Fields told Kendall all this, telling Kendall that these are all his lies and furiously warns Kendall against him. Kendall desperately refuses this and lashes out, tirading that her lie was vengeance against Erica. Somewhat dazed by the extent of Kendall's resentment, Erica realizes Kendall is so angry at her, she would "lie about anything," and, becoming more upset, angrily accuses her of knowing what her accusation against Dimitri would do to their marriage. Equally upset, Kendall says she did exactly what Erica did to Fields, "Accuse an innocent man," but "(she) never dreamed (Erica) would go off the deep end and stab Dimitri." Erica declares, "I believed you. I was defending you." Still upset, Kendall claims that she only wanted to believe her so she could attack him because deep down, Erica knows she's not good enough for Dimitri. When Kendall continues to yell her intentions for revenge, Erica is infuriated, calls her a  "lying, scheming witch" and goes to slap her but Kendall dares her mother to stab her with scissors instead. An appalled Erica refuses to do so and disowns her.

1994
Having been thrown out of Wildwind by Edmund just before her confrontation with Erica after he confronted her about her destructive activities, Kendall returns to Myrtle Fargate's boarding house. She and Anton have a confrontation about the night they had sex, Kendall saying she acted badly because she was afraid she was pregnant and gets upset, exclaiming how misunderstood she is. Still bitter, Anton seduces Kendall and immediately rejects her himself. Kendall feels alone and asks her biological father to come to Pine Valley in January 1994, thinking he can give her the type of love she seeks from Erica. Still snowed by his story that he didn't rape anyone, she continues to defend him. Kendall hijacks Erica's press conference and uses it to introduce Fields to the town. Erica immediately goes to physically attack Fields, screaming that she'll kill him, but she is taken away from the room. Fields defends himself, lying that he didn't rape Erica, and Kendall states she wants to clear Field's name of any rape accusations. Kendall believes Erica cried rape just to get rid of her and justify giving her to "strangers to raise," saying Erica maliciously kept her and her father apart (she later learns he was never publicly identified to the press as her mother's rapist before she hijacked Erica's press conference). Jackson attempts to explain the real story, that Erica was raped by Fields. He says that Kendall is angry with her mother so Kendall is using the press conference to try and sabotage her mother again as Kendall protests otherwise. Afterward, Anton berates Kendall for her stunt at Erica's press conference, saying that Erica gave her life and opened her home to Kendall but Kendall argues, "So she gave me free run of the house. Big deal. My mother's heart was completely off-limits," and she was to be "seen, but not heard." They argue about the night they had sex and about her immediate rejection of him. Anton says that Kendall wants to be hurt because it makes her feel alive. Myrtle comes in and learns from Anton that Fields is Kendall's biological father, not her ailing uncle. She realizes who Fields is and kicks him out of her boarding house. Also thrown out of Myrtle's house for lying, Kendall gets a room at the Pine Cone Motel. When she sees Dimitri make a televised statement supporting Erica's version of events and defends that Erica made an enormous effort to bond with Kendall but Kendall sabotaged it, Kendall bitterly offers herself as a witness for the prosecution in the case against Erica, who has been charged with the attempted murder of Dimitri. Flouncing into the DA’s office, Kendall introduces herself as Erica Kane’s daughter and explains she wants to testify for the prosecution, surprising the DA who becomes suspicious. She tells him that Erica's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder defense is fabricated. Explaining she lived with Erica and knows her, Kendall says Erica always knows what she’s doing and knew exactly what she was doing when she stabbed Dimitri, claiming her mother was jealous of Dimitri's relationship with her own daughter, and says Erica “decided Dimitri was after (Kendall) or something” so she went to confront him. The DA is suspicious, "I can understand how some mother-daughter relationships get complicated, especially in your case, but when a daughter marches into my office, foaming at the mouth to put the screws to her mom in a court of law-" Kendall angrily claims Erica is dangerous and unpredictable, denying Erica’s statement, saying she never accused Dimitri of rape. When the DA asks her if Dimitri came onto her, Kendall says Dimitri always treated her like a daughter and he was a "father to (her) in every way", lying that she isn't trying to get back at her mother,'' "What kind of mother uses her own daughter to escape an attempted murder charge? In my opinion, Erica Kane is the one with an axe to grind. With me." ''When Dimitri bursts in the room and furiously confronts Kendall over her lies, Kendall tells him to put Erica away for stabbing him. Throughout this period, Kendall is continually cautioned by Erica, Anton, Hayley, Charlie and others against her father (even after Fields is arrested for breaking into Erica's house) but she desperately resists believing Fields is dangerous or capable of rape and assures herself he loves her. Fields persuades Kendall into taking him to Erica's trial each day but when Kendall witnesses him using her and the trial for a movie deal, going so far as to suggest she play her own mother at 14 opposite him in a "love story" of their encounter, she grows doubtful of her father's intentions but, still snowed by Fields and his warped accounts, is still intent on revenge against her mother for hurting her.

At Erica's trial during February 1994, Kendall testifies for the prosecution against her mother. Anton tries convincing Kendall, who is still desperate to believe her father loves her, to stand against Fields and desert him and promises to stand by Kendall if she severs her ties with Fields. He cautions Kendall against lying to hurt Erica, saying Kendall will also hurt herself by doing so. Kendall starts to give in but doubts his feelings for her, certain he is only there because Erica and her defense team sent him to change her testimony. Defending she needs payback because her mother hurt her, Kendall takes the stand. She twists the truth and lies about her history with Erica, including not explaining to the jury that she lied about her identity to Erica upon her arrival, did not tell her she was her daughter for two months, and claims her mother knowingly treated her daughter as an employee in an effort to portray Erica as heartless. She falsely states Erica knowingly stabbed Dimitri because she was jealous that Dimitri wanted her romantically as well. Kendall tells the jury that on the morning in question, she only told her mother was that she had unprotected sex with Anton and was scared that she was pregnant, needing Erica to take her to the hospital, claiming, "I wanted my mom." She denies she told Erica that Dimitri raped her, provoking a heated tirade from a hysterical Erica in court, who demands she stop lying, tell the truth and vows she'll stop her from lying. Erica is upset at Kendall's entire testimony and its falsified accounts ("She made me sound like Cinderella's wicked step mother!"), explaining that Kendall didn't tell her she was her daughter when she first arrived and that Kendall told her Dimitri had raped her, leading to her confrontation and attack on him. Though the DA paints Kendall as a hurt little girl who only wanted to please her mother but was coldly neglected by her, Kendall revealing she had idolized Erica since she was eight years old and says she felt Erica mistreated her even upon knowing she was her daughter, Kendall's lies start to unravel under cross-examination by the defense. She is pushed to admit she lied to Erica about her identity upon arriving in Pine Valley, is forced to confess her crush on Dimitri and that she tried to seduce her step-father but he refused her, unwillingly supporting Dimitri's testimony for Erica's defense. The DA angrily threatens an upset Kendall with perjury ("Well, thanks a lot, Lolita. With that last testimony, your mother just may get away with attempted murder.") In retaliation, after Kendall sullenly overhears Erica talking on the phone to Bianca and learns she is keeping Bianca unaware of her stabbing Dimitri and the trial, Kendall flies to Seattle. She convinces Bianca to return with her to Pine Valley in a secret effort to sabotage Erica by showing up with Bianca in the courtroom while court is in session, getting Bianca to agree to fly back to Pine Valley with her after telling her everything and manipulating her little sister when she says Erica could go to prison for years as a result of stabbing Dimitri. They return to Pine Valley and continue bickering with one another, Bianca wanting to see Erica right away as Kendall tries her best to stall until court resumes, but she agrees to wait for Kendall while she leaves her alone in her motel room to get take-out. While Kendall is out, Fields arrives at the room and finds the door is locked, demanding Kendall open the door. Not knowing what he did to Erica, a cautious Bianca lets him in after he says he is Kendall's father, excited when she recognizes him from TV and asks for his autograph. They talk but Bianca is quickly found by Dimitri, Jackson, and Trevor Dillon. She is immediately taken away from the room and Fields. Kendall returns and is surprised to learn Fields was alone with Bianca. She is read the riot act by a furious Dimitri, Jackson, and Trevor. Despite continuing to defend her father, an uneasy Kendall has Fields confirm to her that he didn't touch Bianca. In court later that day, Erica is successfully angered by Kendall's actions, certain she knew how much bringing Bianca into this would hurt her, and upset, is convinced by her defense team not to have her formerly charged due to how it would support Kendall's version of her to the jury, indignant when they point out the potential difficulty of it sticking because Bianca is Kendall's sister and she went with her willingly. However, when Kendall reveals to her that Fields did nothing to Bianca and Erica realizes Kendall let him be alone with Bianca, she becomes enraged at Kendall, launching into a tirade as Kendall notices the jury filing in. Kendall deliberately fuels Erica’s tirade while they are watching by falsely claiming she brought Bianca back just for her sake as Erica responds by yelling she is lying, more spiteful than she ever thought and a monster in front of the disapproving jury.

In March 1994, Kendall is devastated to learn of other rape accusations, accounts, and charges made against her father that are revealed during his testimony used for Erica's PTSD defense, one girl committing suicide when her molestation charges against Fields were dropped, and she grows increasingly troubled by the prospect that Fields isn't innocent as he claimed. Fields supposedly suffers a heart attack when he is grilled with these accusations made against him, Erica hoping for Fields' death while she watches him collapse. Kendall is troubled to learn that he faked the attack just to escape court. Anton pushes Kendall to disassociate herself from him, referencing his other victims, and starts to get through to Kendall but she still desperately resists accepting Fields is a rapist, thinking he is all she has left. To counter Kendall's testimony, Erica is put on the stand. She explains she wanted to be close to Kendall when Kendall revealed she was her daughter, worked to do so, and explains she was willing to invest the time it would take to develop a close relationship. It was then made difficult when Erica experienced memories of her rape she initially believed were "just a phase" triggered by Kendall's arrival but she recounts that they worsened into flashbacks after finding Kendall's collection of Fields memorabilia in the stables. She explains she never wanted her daughter to know she was conceived in rape and tried to keep her unaware of this but Kendall kept pushing for information, upset when she learned Dimitri was supportive of Kendall's search for Fields and enabled it. Erica had Kendall agree to stop looking but Kendall ended up breaking her promises not to search for Fields. Her flashbacks worsened after she was devastated by Dimitri and Kendall's betrayal when she learned they found Fields but now understands Dimitri tried to make Kendall give her father up, unhappily remembering that Kendall didn't do so. Erica testifies that she didn't think of Dimitri as a rapist until Kendall's accusation that Dimitri had raped her or she would never have left Kendall alone with him that night she saw Dimitri shake Kendall. Explaining she knew Kendall was a virgin, Erica says she believed Dimitri raped Kendall when it was proven Kendall lost her virginity within the past 12 hours and Kendall told her what happened. Erica explains she had to believe Kendall despite a year of lies "because (she) knows what it's like not to be believed by a parent," and "couldn't do that to any daughter of (hers)," referencing her father not believing her when she told him Fields had raped her; she had to confront Dimitri for committing this same crime on her daughter, the arrival of which prompted suppressed memories of her own rape, Erica having explained she couldn’t entirely block her rape experience and always still remembered it on a deeper level. When Erica hallucinated Dimitri as Fields, she stabbed him. Erica explains she believed she was defending herself and Kendall by killing Fields and returned right to the hospital to tell Kendall they didn't need to fear Fields anymore but was horrified to realize she stabbed Dimitri instead. Meanwhile, after a talk with Erica, an angry Bianca comes to see Kendall about the trouble she is causing but Kendall is not at the motel. Instead, Fields arrives and finds Bianca looking for Kendall in her room. Bianca, having learned from Erica how dangerous Fields really is, becomes frightened and tries to escape Fields' advances. Meanwhile, Erica testifies about her rape in detail for her PTSD defense and recounts her pregnancy and Kendall's adoption, having explained she cared deeply about her baby but had to give her up because it was best for everyone involved, she was too young to raise her, and remembers how she had to bury these experiences for years due to her trauma, she “mourn(ed) the loss” of "(her) first-born daughter" when her daughter, Bianca, was born but realized she made the right choice for Kendall. When Erica remembers right after giving birth to and placing Kendall for adoption, she prayed her daughter never would experience the pain she did, Kendall is destroyed after having found Fields making an attempt to molest her little sister, stopping him. Having walked in on Fields just before he was about to force himself on Bianca as Bianca makes for the door, a stunned Kendall is horrified and she quickly rescues a distraught Bianca before Fields can rape her, getting Bianca out of the room and sending her home with Mona. Witnessing her biological father for what he truly is, Kendall immediately vomits and furiously confronts him about Bianca, livid when he tells her that Bianca "came to (him)" asking for it. She is sickened to suddenly realize, "Oh my God, Erica- You raped my mother. She didn't seduce you. It was rape," is devastated to accept that her father is a rapist and that she believed his lies. Disgusted that she defended Fields despite Erica's and everybody else's warnings against him, Kendall screams that he's cost her everyone and everything. Kendall's devastation continues as she listens to Fields still defending himself but she responds, "You raped my mother. You tried to rape Bianca. I can't stand the sight of you another minute." She goes to leave as Fields insults her and threatens to disown her if she leaves him. Kendall resolutely responds, "I hope you burn in hell," and abandons Fields, completely disassociating from him before collapsing into tears outside.

Kendall is distraught and runs to Anton, tearfully explaining what she saw with Fields trying to attack Bianca. Anton pressures her into telling the truth in court. Kendall wavers but freaks out and runs away. Mona confronts Fields and attempts to stab him but leaves him to die in the motel room from a heart attack. A regretful Kendall runs to Erica's house the next morning and talks to her mother, apologizing for her lies, and says she was right about Fields; he is everything Erica said he was, she saw what he tried to do to Bianca. Erica responds, "Now you know, now you believe, because you've seen with your own eyes that filthy old man with Bianca. Why did it take that? Why wasn't my word enough?" and says Bianca will forever be scarred by that experience. Remorseful over what happened with Bianca and horrified by what nearly happened to her, an apologetic Kendall admits she should have accepted Erica's word but confesses that she couldn't make herself face it, "I just couldn't (face it). How could my father be that sick? How could I be the result- " Kendall apologizes to Erica again and says she would have died if anything happened to Bianca, offering to testify in court for Bianca against Fields. Telling her that won't be necessary now, Erica stuns Kendall when she tells her that Fields is dead from a heart attack. Kendall believes Fields deserved to die for what he did, tries to attribute her behavior in court to Fields, but berates herself for not believing Erica's warnings about him. She says she regrets everything she's done and Erica is guilted when Kendall tearfully admits she was hurt because she didn't get the kind of love she's always wanted from Erica. However, Erica rebukes Kendall, "Do you have any idea the trouble you've caused? Not just my life but so many others just for hurt? Bianca, Dimitri, he could have died." Asking for her forgiveness, Kendall earnestly vows, "I'll apologize to everyone, I will beg their forgiveness. But you're the one I hurt the most. You're my mother. I'd give anything to make it up to you. There isn't anything I can do to pay you back but if I could, if I could, I would. Just to show you how much I mean it." Erica asks her if she'd be willing to tell the truth in court and has Kendall confirm she lied about their conversation the morning she came to Erica for help, guilt tripping Kendall when she points out she could go to prison without Kendall's exoneration. Conflicted, Kendall wants to make amends, tell the truth in court, but says she is afraid of perjury and asks for help if she is charged. She agrees to exonerate her mother after Erica, still doubting Kendall's sincerity in believing Kendall is selfishly motivated by feeling sorry for herself and not taking responsibility, plays her daughter by deceiving her into admitting her lies on the stand when she falsely promises her help in order to secure Kendall's testimony in her defense, mirroring some of their shared qualities.

At court, after Erica is cross examined by the prosecution in which she explains she left Wildwind not because she was jealous of her daughter's relationship with her husband but because of Kendall's betrayals, confirming she did not like the situation of her husband having her daughter stay at Wildwind in her absence, and again states she stabbed Dimitri after hallucinating him as Fields because Kendall told her he had raped her, Kendall earnestly confesses her lies in her testimony for the defense. She takes back her former testimony, fully corroborating Erica's version of events by admitting she lied to Erica that Dimitri had raped her, causing Erica to confront and stab him. Confessing she set out to "poison" Erica and Dimitri's relationship because she couldn't accept she was given up for adoption for good reasons/in an act of "necessity and love," Kendall admits she drove her mother to the edge and supports Erica's PTSD defense, upset when she accepts her father was a rapist. After cross-examination, Kendall is arrested by the DA for perjury after stepping off the stand. Erica still refuses to help Kendall out of her perjury charge. Anton talks to Erica, upset when he figures out Erica's deception, and Erica goes to see Kendall. She and Kendall have an emotional confrontation over Kendall's various schemes. Erica reveals her deception to Kendall and says she won't help her, that Kendall is on her own, "You're a smart girl. I'm sure you will mastermind a brilliant strategy to get yourself out of this." Stunned that Erica lied about forgiving her, Kendall is distressed and asks Erica if she lied just to hurt her. Erica replies, "Of course not," and explains she needed to convince Kendall to exonerate her, relying on her daughter's self-interest proclivities to get her to tell the truth in court by promising her help out of a potential perjury charge, mirroring Kendall's own deceptions against Erica. Dazed, Kendall is in disbelief over how Erica could do this to her and upset, Erica asks why Kendall did what she did to her, "Because I'm your role model? Because I'm your standard of excellence? Because I'm your beloved mother? Is that why you hacked my life to pieces?" When a stunned Kendall tearfully explains, "I was wrong, I said I was wrong, I got on the stand, I tried to make it better," Erica reveals she would have helped Kendall despite what she did if she didn't hurt Bianca by deliberately bringing her into the situation. Kendall cries that she didn't know what Fields was and Erica angrily reminds her that she warned her against what he was but Kendall wouldn't believe it, yelling at her for Bianca being left alone with Fields and undermining her efforts to protect Bianca from "this filthy trial" by bringing her to Pine Valley to "rub her nose in it," refusing to bail her out now. Kendall implores how she didn't mean for Bianca to get hurt and never wanted Fields to hurt Bianca. She apologizes for everything and accepts her imprisonment but begs for another chance. Kendall earnestly explains she didn't come to Pine Valley to hurt Erica but only came to be Erica's daughter and wanted to know her this way more than anything. Troubled, Erica is conflicted by Kendall's cries but resists giving into her again. She still doubts her sincerity, believing Kendall is feeling sorry for herself again, hasn't given up her attitude problems, and says Kendall expects her to wave this "magic wand" to fix her daughter's problems and make everything better, lecturing her to take responsibility for her actions and she can't forgive her as she can't even forgive herself for what she's done. Kendall protests this and insists she's not expecting anything magical. However, Erica continues to lecture Kendall that, for her to have a decent future, she needs to give up her fantasy life and ego-centric views, including her unrealistic expectations for instant bonding instead of allowing people time to know each other, having punished Erica when she couldn’t match Kendall’s dream of her, for Kendall to take a hard look at her actions and their consequences creating this situation for herself, and tells Kendall that prison is the result of her (Kendall's) own revenge plots. She leaves a newly vengeful Kendall in jail and Kendall, hurt all over again, vows payback. Erica returns home and, feeling terrible about turning her back on her daughter, she calls Alice Hart to help Kendall. After Kendall pleads guilty to her perjury and receives a lesser sentence of 30 days at Green Briar, a minimum security correctional facility, she experiences a brief but warm reunion with her mother, Alice, and immediately falls into her arms.

Having fallen in love with Kendall over the past months, Anton visits a devastated Kendall in jail before receiving her sentence where he vows his loyalty and professes his love to her. Lashing out at him, Kendall is skeptical and reluctant to believe him, also blaming him for being in jail. After Anton lectures her that she is selfish, only interested in herself, and unsuccessfully tries to convince her of his feelings for her, he threatens to leave but Kendall pleads for him to come back to her and accepts his declaration, grateful when he comes back for her the next day. She is confronted by the DA for perjuring herself and ruining his case, “''Right away, I thought to myself, warning! This little girl has a personal axe to grind with her mother. But you assured me that I was wrong, there was no vendetta, but that's exactly what it was. You used me and the powers of my office to get back at your mother. You set me up.''” Kendall remains quiet but Anton defends her as being confused and no menace to society. Kendall, though frightened by the notion of jail, nervously pleads guilty to perjury and is given a lesser sentence of 30 days in a minimum security prison due to it being her first offense. However, Kendall freaks out upon hearing this and panics, pleading with the judge to not send her to jail, “I realize how wrong it was and I swear, I will never do it again!" However, the sentence remains and Anton stands by a frightened Kendall, making Dimitri extremely unhappy. Dimitri learns the extent of Anton's devotion to Kendall after he watches Anton go to guilt Erica for Kendall being in jail, accusing her of getting what she wanted, but Erica says Kendall is paying for her perjury, "And unlike my daughter, I do not enjoy other people's suffering," angering Anton, who still doesn't think it's fair to Kendall and believes she has all but been condemned, to which Erica disagrees, noting the leniency of Kendall's sentence (“Excuse me, she has been sentenced to 30 days in Green Briar, not a life sentence of hard labor”) before he goes after Dimitri and says he's worse than Erica for "totally turn(ing) his back on Kendall." Anton proclaims that he is in love with Kendall and leaves to continue his defensive tirade her name, briefly halted when he learns Erica called Alice for Kendall and takes Alice to her, but when Dimitri tries to buy Kendall out of town, Anton is infuriated further. Dimitri exiles him from Wildwind when he refuses to leave Kendall but learns Anton is his son shortly after (Anton's "sister" Corvina had sex with a teenaged passed-out Dimitri and Anton was raised by Corvina's parents). While imprisoned, Kendall meets fellow town pariah and inmate, Janet Green, who has received experimental plastic surgery on her face with her wrapped in bandages (Kendall calling her “Gauze Head” and “Cotton Swab”). Unaware of Janet's identity as a former resident of Pine Valley and convicted murderer, the two gradually become friends. Kendall reveals her backstory and that she is Erica Kane's daughter but when Janet starts fondly reminiscing about being cellmates with Erica once and extolling her virtues, Kendall stops her with, "Erica Kane is the most heartless, selfish, vindictive witch that has ever been my misfortune to know. Period. End of subject." Janet gets Kendall to open up when she talks about the sibling rivalry with her own sister and Kendall updates Janet of the events happening in town since her imprisonment. Janet shows interest in Trevor Dillon, Erica's lawyer, when he comes to convince Kendall on Erica's behalf to testify for her mother again should it be needed, countering Kendall's arguments that she got herself into jail, not Erica, and Kendall got off relatively easy after the "stunts" she's pulled with her mother and the trial. He urges her to give up her vendetta, telling an angry Kendall her situation isn't as bad as she thinks and she doesn't know what it is to experience real hostility (alarming Janet), "Give it up, kid. Your life won't be worth a rat's rear if you don't learn how to forgive." Kendall is still hurt over what happened with Erica, blames her for being in jail after she testified for her defense, and bitterly refuses in an effort to avoid more pain, snarking, "That was a really great forgiveness speech," and tells him, ''"You want me to forgive my mother? Well, not until she forgives me. I wouldn't hold my breath that's going to be in a long, long time." ''Trevor tries some more and Kendall reluctantly agrees to consider it when he brings up Bianca. However, sticking by the television set to hear updates on the trial, she is upset to learn from Anton that Erica received a verdict of "not guilty." Janet pushes Kendall for information on Trevor and his family who, unbeknownst to Kendall, is raising Janet's daughter. When Kendall mentions to an alarmed Trevor that Janet knows him, an upset Janet warns Kendall off. Kendall becomes confused, noting how Janet overheard every one of her conversations she has had with her visitors, “You just stood there like a giant cotton swab soaking up every single word we said.” Janet refuses to explain herself, “You’re just a kid, what do you know about life?”  Undeterred, Kendall demands to know what is going on but Janet refuses to tell her anything. She advises Kendall to give up the grudges and learn from her own experience. Kendall is angry to discover that the true identify of her new friend, "The mild mannered woman disguised as a cotton swab is actually Janet Green, Janet-From-Another-Planet," a notorious criminal about whom Kendall has heard infamous new reports of since her childhood in Florida and then stories of at Wildwind (Janet committed crimes including homicide and imprisoning her sister in an abandoned mineshaft). Janet confirms this but, nonetheless, Kendall comes to accept Janet anyway and the two gradually become friends, Kendall giving Janet a make-over before she is released.

Anton proposes to Kendall in April 1994. She initially panics, wanting to figure out her life first, but later accepts his proposal when Anton agrees to wait to marry and they are engaged. Del Henry, a writer in need of money for a kidney transplant, proposes the idea of a tell-all book about Erica to Kendall. Anton makes Kendall promise she will stop plotting against Erica. He threatens to call their engagement off if Kendall agrees to help Del write the book and she refuses the proposition. However, she secretly calls Del later that day and agrees to write the book with him. Kendall is released in late April 1994 and an unhappy Dimitri is forced to offer Anton and Kendall the Hunting Lodge to appease his newfound son. Anton devotes himself to Kendall, believing she has truly changed. Dimitri and the other Wildwind residents operate under the guise of making peace with Kendall to keep Anton, angry at Dimitri over his treatment of Kendall, open to a relationship with his father but plan to break the couple up. Kendall is immediately suspicious something is going on. In the Hunting Lodge, Kendall meets Julia Santos, currently residing at Wildwind, when she and Anton find her crying there. Kendall immediately dislikes her, igniting a rivalry over Julia's growing friendship with Anton. They snark at one another over each other’s histories but Julia attempts to advise Kendall to learn from her own experience and win people over slowly, saying she is paying for her mistakes. Kendall asks Julia if “(she’s) for real” and tells her, "There's your problem right there. I have no intention of paying for anything. I'm not Erica Kane's daughter for nothing,” before flouncing away. Kendall, suspicious of the Wildwind residents' seeming reconciliatory attitude toward her and of Julia’s friendship with Anton, decides she suddenly wants to marry Anton right away, panicking the Wildwind residents but they successfully talk her into her original intention of waiting to marry.

Dimitri reluctantly hires Kendall as his personal assistant on the condition that she stops her schemes against Erica. Kendall agrees, insisting that she has changed, but immediately sabotages Dimitri's efforts to restart Erica's struggling return to modeling and continues to secretly sabotage her mother's life, thwarting her reconciliation attempts with Dimitri again. Continuing her habit of eavesdropping, Kendall deliberately allows an upset Erica to discover Dimitri has let her live in the Hunting Lodge, Erica and Dimitri's honeymoon home. Erica starts to suspect again that Dimitri is romantically interested in Kendall and accuses him of this being the reason he took her back in, suggesting he led Kendall on from the beginning. Dimitri firmly denies this, forced to reveal to Erica a short while later that Anton is his son and he is keeping Kendall at Wildwind for him only until he can break them up and then he and Erica can reunite. Erica accepts this, reconciling with him for the time being, and agrees to keep the secret. Dimitri swears he won't let Kendall marry Anton for her own gain (ie. to inherit Wildwind) after Erica cautions him to be careful in keeping this from Kendall as "(Dimitri) knows (Kendall) almost as well as (she) does," and how difficult it can become if Kendall ever found out Anton was his son right when, at Wildwind, Kendall starts suspecting there is a secret about Anton being kept from her. She begins eavesdropping on conversations to pick up clues, determined to learn what this secret is. Discreetly, Kendall begins helping Del write the tell-all book about Erica in an effort to damage Erica's reputation, also saying she wants to make a name for herself and get out of Erica’s shadow. Keeping the book hidden from everyone, especially Anton, and hurt by her history with Erica, she makes up negative stories about her mother and twists their relationship for Del's book. The book is nearly discovered several times, including when Dimitri interrupts their writing session and Kendall is forced to have Del hide in a closet, quickly putting on her "I've changed" act for a disapproving Dimitri, claiming she's not scheming anymore (Del: "Woah, you can really act." Kendall: "It's a gift.") Anton nearly discovers the book when he is about to walk in on a writing session to make out with Kendall and Kendall freaks, forced to hide an annoyed Del in the closet again, and anxiously refuses to let Anton touch her. In June 1994, Kendall meets Anton's sister, Corvina, and links her to the secret being kept from her by the other residents of Wildwind, becoming increasingly determined to uncover it. In her efforts to do so, Kendall continues eavesdropping on conversations and attempts to befriend Corvina. Pretending to get drunk herself, Kendall encourages Corvina to get drunk "as well" so she'll accidentally leak the secret to her but she is unsuccessful, although she learns Corvina had a crush on Dimitri. Noting Kendall’s intelligence, the other Wildwind residents continue to carefully keep this information from her and inform Corvina of Kendall's previous activities, that they plan to separate her and Anton so Kendall will leave Wildwind, and a frustrated Kendall remains unaware that Anton is Dimitri's son.

Kendall realizes "Jane Cox" is actually her prison friend, Janet Green. Though initially concerned about a convicted murderer masquerading under a fake identity in Pine Valley and also hoping to get a reward when she turns in the tip, Kendall confronts Janet over her deception. However, when she is injured and trapped under a fallen beam during a tornado, Kendall swears to Janet she will keep her secret for Amanda's sake. As Janet tries to free Kendall from the beam, Kendall is touched by the complete love Janet has for her daughter and explains she doesn't want Amanda to turn out like herself, feeling unwanted and unloved, and will help Janet reunite with her daughter. Dimitri helps Janet save Kendall and he takes her to the hospital, where she is detained briefly with minor injuries. Anton is relieved Kendall is alright but Kendall becomes insecure as Anton works to help Julia after she suffers major facial scarring. Kendall continues to keep Jane's actual identity as Janet Green a secret and their friendship remains hidden but loyal until December 1994, when Janet's identity is revealed during her failed wedding to Trevor Dillon, despite Kendall's best efforts to cover for her. Their friendship continues afterward as they remain each other's closest allies in mutually genuine support and scheming. Janet has Kendall promise she will look after Amanda should anything happen to her. Kendall risks her own life to stop Janet from embarking on two massacres in an effort to take Amanda in March 1995 and in May 1995. In May 1995, a horrified Kendall witnesses what she believes to be Janet's death when she is apparently stuck by lightning.

Kendall's grandmother, Mona, dies in August 1994. Having experienced a short but loving relationship with her grandmother the year before, a devastated Kendall is deeply affected and attempts to pay her respects but she is angrily confronted by Erica, who mistakenly believes that Kendall is faking her grief and has merely come to crash the funeral. Despite Kendall's heartfelt confessions, Erica orders her to leave. She is pulled away by Janet after accidentally knocking over Mona's portrait. Janet is sympathetic to Kendall's struggles with her mother, enduring a difficult relationship with her own mother, and agrees to say good-bye to Mona on Kendall's behalf. She tells Mona's coffin that Kendall loved her. Later, when visiting Mona's grave, Kendall gets into another argument with Dimitri, which climaxes when Kendall demands to know why he still protects Erica after she stabbed him. Furious at Erica over Mona's funeral, Kendall angrily resumes work with Del on the tell-all book, saying she only wanted to be accepted and Mona loved her but Erica barred her from her own grandmother's funeral. Kendall and Del start to develop a friendship. At the end of August, Dimitri and Edmund discover Kendall and Del's book of lies about Erica. They follow Kendall and Del to New York and receive confirmation it is being published. Hoping this will convince Anton to break up with Kendall and she will leave Wildwind, they reveal the book in front of Anton when they read aloud Kendall's negatively falsified stories about Erica (Corvina: "It sounds like Cinderella's story"). Kendall is forced to confess she contributed the stories and she was helping Del write the expose. However, she successfully convinces Anton she will change, stop plotting against Erica, and promises to go to therapy. That night, Kendall manages to intercede a thank-you note from Erica to Dimitri and forges a scathing letter in its place to prevent a reconciliation between them. She is furious to learn the tell-all book will not be published and Del accepted a $250,000 buy out from Dimitri to bury it. She is then devastated to learn from Dimitri that Wildwind's latest acceptance of her was just a ruse and Dimitri confronts Kendall over her deceptions, including her false accusation of rape against him, bringing Fields to town, her little sister being alone with him, the destruction of his marriage and her continued sabotage of Erica. Kendall rants against Erica again and says Dimitri is sick for wanting Erica back after what she did to him. After Dimitri furiously reminds her, "She is your mother," Kendall tirades over her rocky relationship with Erica, insisting what Erica gave her was anger and she blamed Kendall for things that weren't her fault. When Dimitri says that Kendall schemed against Erica, Kendall cries, "I tried to make her love me!" She explains would have done anything for Erica to love her in the way she loves Bianca. Dimitri tells Kendall that she "spit on (Erica's) love." Kendall denies this, screaming Erica made her life miserable. She rants against Erica, upset that Erica wasn’t with Mona when she passed and when her tirade escalates with claiming she's glad Erica now knows what it's like to be without a mother, Dimitri goes for Kendall's throat before stopping himself from choking her to death. Later, Kendall apologizes for what she said about Mona, sincerely wishing Mona hadn't died, but Dimitri rejects the apology and wants her out of Anton's life. Kendall confronts Del about accepting the buy-out to drop their book, "Every last blood-soaked tear-stained page was ripped from my heart, not yours," and demands 50% but Del refuses, revealing he returned the money. While Kendall is at her one and only therapy session, Anton discovers Erica's burned note to Dimitri in the fireplace and understands that Kendall forged Erica's letter to Dimitri in its place. Irate, he realizes Kendall hasn't changed and throws her out of Wildwind in September 1994. Janet tries hiding Kendall in her room at Myrtle's boarding house but Myrtle kicks her out. Kendall returns to the Pine Cone Motel.

Kendall decides to briefly fake a pregnancy in an effort to win Anton back but he angrily rejects her after calling her bluff and her deception fails. Thinking Del owes her for the book, an obstinate Kendall is undeterred and goes to him to get help with a scheme to get Anton back when the pregnancy scam fails but he refuses. Despite this, Kendall stands by and supports Del throughout his kidney transplant preparation and surgery through to December 1994 and defends him to Dixie's friends and family. She is genuinely touched to learn Del named a recording of her laugh as one of his most precious assets when his father reads his living will to her in December 1994. Erica is disappointed to learn about Kendall's continued revenge mission against her from Anton later in September 1994. Near the end of that month, she and Kendall have an emotional, hurtful, and heated confrontation over Kendall's forged note and tell-all book attempt when she stops Kendall nervously fleeing away from her in a boutique, telling her, "Not so fast, young lady, you and I have quite a few things to settle." After Erica lambastes her trying to publish her lies in a book & burning/forging her note, she points out to Kendall that she has burned all of her bridges in Pine Valley and offers her a ticket home, again imploring her to return to her loving home with the Harts, trying to make Kendall recognize how difficult it will be to get along in Pine Valley but a defensive Kendall bitterly refuses to leave. Erica warns Kendall if she wants to chose to fight with her, she'll take no prisoners. Kendall responds by crying that before this all happened, she wanted Erica to be her mother, and guilts Erica for not loving her like she needed, saying that Erica said how hard she tried but was unable due to memories of her rape. Erica says Kendall is twisting words again and accuses her of telling only what she wants to tell of their history, declaring that Kendall can't recognize the truth so Kendall, after guilting Erica by saying how horrible a mother she is, furiously rants against her some more during their argument, blaming Erica for everything wrong in her world and swears people will leave Erica when they see through her someday, Kendall also blaming Erica for being the reason she's alone now herself. Erica denies she did this to Kendall, saying Kendall is blaming others for her behavior, and that Kendall is doing this to herself because she turns against people who are kind to her. Erica devastates Kendall when she calls her a sociopath for abandoning parents who'd do anything for her, turning against Dimitri when he championed her, and can no longer use Anton as a fallback despite him giving her many chances because she only has feelings for herself. She warns Kendall against keeping this behavior up or else she'll turn out like her biological father: old, alone and without anybody. Anton arrives and physically restrains a hysterical Kendall when she goes after her mother. As Erica cries over what Kendall has become to her mother's grave, Kendall is unhappy to learn of Anton's increasing interest in Julia and tearfully goes to him during his rescue mission to find Julia. She threatens to kill herself if they don't get back together but only succeeds in aggravating him. Anton is certain this is another one of Kendall's ploys for attention, calls Kendall's bluff by dialing 9-11, and leaves. Kendall gets frustrated, curses "Damn! 9-11 is fast!" when she hears the ambulance approach, and thinks suicide is lame so she takes a low dosage of four pills to fake her suicide attempt instead by sleeping. She successfully achieves her aim to manipulate Anton, managing to guilt him when Anton sees Kendall being taken into the hospital and he blames himself for her "attempt" while Dr. Martin notifies Erica. When Dimitri tells her about Kendall's "suicide attempt" at the hospital, Erica confirms that Kendall is still alive first but then becomes suspicious she's pulling another ploy, realizing Kendall is scheming to manipulate Anton again and knows she's not suicidal like Anton now believes. She tries to convince Anton that he can't give into Kendall's psychodrama again either, this is another ploy of Kendall's for payback/attention, remembering her history, explaining that Kendall wants to make them feel guilty again and they both gave Kendall chances/tried for her but nothing they gave her was enough, and to allow the doctors to help Kendall this time and not reward her bad behavior or Kendall won’t ever learn/change. A guilt-ridden Anton refuses to accept this is another scheme and blames Erica and himself, upset he didn't believe Kendall’s “crisis” and accused her of "grandstanding". However, Dr. Martin verifies Erica's suspicions with Kendall's test results, showing her and Dimitri Kendall's low dosage and that she did fake her suicide attempt. Erica is unsurprised. Dimitri is furious. Meanwhile, Kendall wakes up with a headache but is pleased her scheme seems to have worked when she finds out Anton knows. Del, also fooled by her attempt, lectures Kendall on what a gift her life is and is angry when he believes she was willing to throw it away over a guy. As he tells Kendall she needs to stop being an ingrate about everything and how she's smart/pretty/healthy/can have anything she wants and be anything if she were to give up her bitterness, etc. Kendall stops him with, "Give it up, Delbert," and says she was never suicidal. Kendall reveals she only faked her suicide attempt to induce Anton into getting back together with her, "Dead? Please. I only took four or five pills. I would have had a longer nap, that's all." Upset, Del berates Kendall for her stunt and selfishness when a guilt-ridden Anton comes in and Kendall resumes her tearful suicide risk act for him. Del unsuccessfully tries to tell him that Kendall's suicide attempt was an act but Anton blames Del as well, saying he played on Kendall's problems for the book. As Kendall acts her part, Del keeps trying to enlighten Anton about what Kendall's up to while he and Kendall reunite (Del: "Before you cue the orchestra, Anton, you should know that Kendall-"), when Erica enters Kendall's room with her chart. She exposes Kendall's lie to Anton, who is still busy apologizing to Kendall as Del rolls his eyes, and gives him Kendall's four-pill test results. Furious he bought Kendall's act, Anton leaves a protesting Kendall, who seemed initially pleased Erica came until Erica revealed her scam. Anton tells Kendall to "get help, little girl, and get a life and stay out of mine," and Erica lets Kendall have it, also berating her for her latest stunt. She tells a petulant Kendall she warned her to stop scheming, saying "to stay out of Mommy's way" if she doesn't stop and Kendall angrily blames Erica all over again for ruining her plan.

Afterward, Kendall works for a short time as Brooke English's assistant at Tempo Magazine from October to'' November 1994.  Though Kendall manages to avoid Erica trying to get her fired (who thinks Kendall is using the magazine job to destroy her reputation again after Kendall's failed book of "lies cover-to-cover"'') when Erica lets Kendall be at Tempo, told this job will keep Kendall too busy for plots against her, Kendall screws that up when she gets a scathing article she made up about Erica printed in the magazine to sabotage Erica's renewed modeling career. An aggravated Erica discovers it, realizes it was Kendall after Kendall tries to stop her from telling Brooke but Erica notifies Brooke and Brooke fires Kendall. Kendall becomes focused on getting Anton back and she notices him and Julia becoming close. In December 1994, when Janet's true identity is discovered at the wedding and Kendall's attempts to cover for her were unsuccessful, a hurt Kendall is miserable to learn that Dimitri and Erica are back together. Sulking after seeing them at the hospital together while visiting Del to support him after his surgery, Kendall remembers the Wildwind secret about Anton that has eluded her since June and works with Janet to come up with a lie in its place. When Janet suggests Kendall lie to Anton that he is Dimitri and Corvina's son, a revelation neither of them knows to be true, Kendall claims this story is "way too gothic" to believe but she dubiously tries this story with Anton anyway. Anton immediately denounces the story as a lie. When he brings it to Dimitri, Dimitri confirms that he is his father and Corvina is his mother. Anton is furious at Dimitri and Corvina because of their deception and not telling him they were his parents. Kendall, seeing the way her own actions and behavior are hurting herself, feels the urge to change and asks for Del's help. When she intends to see her parents in Florida for Christmas and makes plans to turn her life around, Anton comes to see her. Kendall is stunned her lie about Dimitri being Anton's father and Corvina being his mother is actually the truth. Anton feels Kendall is the only other person he knows who understands the parental crisis he's going through, Kendall remembering when she found out Erica is her mother, and both feel their lives up until the point they discovered their true parentage was a lie, angry over the deception and not being told the truth. Anton convinces Kendall to elope with him as vengeance against their respective parents, who are now re-married to each other. He drags her out of state, getting married at a courthouse, Kendall agreeing to the marriage in feeling Anton can give her security and believing she loves him. However, they return to upset Erica, Dimitri, et. al when they announce their marriage to Wildwind on Christmas Eve. Erica and Dimitri, saying how Anton has been duped by Kendall’s “sweet face” for the umpteenth time, decide against fighting the marriage as it will only unite Kendall and Anton closer together in anger against them. They choose to step back, both realizing Kendall and Anton are using each other to get back at them and hope Anton and Kendall will push each other away themselves.

1995
In January 1995, Anton, angry at Dimitri and Corvina, quits his medical training to become a car mechanic. Dimitri is incensed, disowning Anton. The entire duration of the marriage between Anton and Kendall is problematic. He treats Kendall with indifference, including berating her for how she treats her little sister when Bianca comes over on her own to speak to Anton and the sisters end up in a bickering match and insulting Kendall when she confronts him over his feelings for Julia. Erica visits Anton and Kendall to attempt to call a ceasefire. She talks to Anton on Dimitri's behalf by explaining to him that Dimitri only recently found out from Corvina he had a son, but an angry Kendall snipes at Erica over her shoulder all the while, drawing comparisons between their own estranged mother-daughter situation with Anton's parental crisis with Dimitri, saying they were both hurt by being lied to their entire lives. Erica finally turns around and tells Kendall their situation was different, but an upset Kendall believes their situations are the same. Erica says Kendall still refuses to see the truth and that she and Mona did what was best for Kendall by giving her up to a loving family after she was born, telling Anton that Corvina did the very same for her son when she gave him up to be raised by her parents instead. Anton is conflicted but refuses to forgive Dimitri. He continues his cold treatment of Kendall, who insists she's the only one who can understand how he feels. Kendall tries hard to make their marriage work. She continues to feel threatened by Anton's developing closeness with Julia. Complaining that Julia is moping around playing "scar baby" for Anton, Kendall tries to get Julia to back off of Anton by blatantly attempting to play Noah Keefer, also interested in Julia, against Anton, irritably telling Noah that he is "too inept to control Julia." However, Noah is on to Kendall's game and tells her to take her "skinny behind" and get lost. Kendall makes an offer to Dimitri, who tries to separate the couple despite his vow to ignore them, that she will reconcile him with his son in exchange for financially securing their futures and letting them back into Wildwind but Dimitri refuses. Kendall retaliates by lying to Anton that Dimitri offered her a million dollars to leave him but she turned it down to be with him. When Dimitri denies this, claiming Kendall doesn't love him, Anton still refuses to leave Kendall. Dimitri disowns Anton over his marriage to Kendall after he rejects his attempt to reach out to him, prompting Corvina to move out of Wildwind. Dealing with Anton's distance towards her, Kendall offers herself as a lifeline to Corvina, saying that if they join forces, she'll open Anton up to a reconciliation with Corvina. Kendall also wants Anton to return to medicine but tells Corvina that if Anton refuses, she guilt Dimitri into financially securing their future. Corvina is reluctant, remembering how Kendall has betrayed most everyone she knows, but agrees if Kendall can get Anton to forgive her. Corvina fails with Dimitri but, joining forces with Kendall, Kendall works to bring about a reconciliation between mother and son. Both Anton and Kendall are frustrated with their lives and Anton badgers Kendall to get a job to utilize a second income. Del notices the distance between Anton and Kendall. An uncomfortable Kendall cheerfully denies it but manages to appease Anton when he happy with Kendall after Del helps her get hired as a waitress at McKay's Restaurant.

In February 1995, Corvina convinces a reluctant Kendall to sneak into Wildwind and steal a ceramic leopard, bought in Budapest by Erica. Kendall initially refuses, fearful of getting caught ("This would be my second offense which means no country club prisons this time. It'd be straight to maximum security for me!") but Corvina tells her to stop "over dramatizing" and they argue over the risks and consequences of getting caught. However, Kendall skeptically listens as Corvina says it contains fabled documents that would make Corvina's family heir to Wildwind. When Corvina praises Kendall's abilities and uses her issues with her mother, "You know what? It is a shame that Erica doesn't appreciate you. You're so smart, so intelligent, and once you've made up your mind to accomplish something, nothing and no one can stop you," Kendall relents and agrees to steal the leopard. While everyone is at Edmund's "funeral" after he is apparently "killed" for a few days in a car explosion for a few days, Kendall sneaks into Wildwind and retrieves the leopard. Anton first refuses Dimitri's invitation for him to come to the funeral but eventually decides to attend without telling Kendall, who puts on an understanding face but urges a non-committal Anton not to go, saying how their families hurt them. Erica also asked Anton to support Dimitri at his brother's funeral but when he initially refused to come, telling her Dimitri lied to him his entire life and Kendall is the only one who understands him, she lectures him that he and Kendall are only together because "(they're) both mad at the world," on his being with Kendall to get back at Dimitri and Kendall is feeding his anger with her own to get revenge. An ambivalent Anton thinks they want them to break up and argues that Kendall relies on him too much. Erica admits she doesn't deny she wants Kendall and Anton apart but assures that Kendall was doing fine on her own when they weren't together but when Anton responds that Kendall loves him, she has Anton question if they do love each other or if he and Kendall are together out of bitterness, reminding Anton that Dimitri has stood by him in the past after Anton says Kendall is the one who stood by him while Dimitri lied about his parentage. Though Anton insists Kendall has changed to a dubious Erica, who tells him not to "make (her) list all the hideous things (Kendall) has done" and has heard this from Kendall herself quite a few times before to no avail, he becomes more suspicious about Kendall.

Meanwhile, as Kendall is sneaking out of Wildwind with the leopard, she is shocked when Edmund appears there alive but she manages to escape undetected. She runs into Anton exiting the funeral but covers up her real intentions for being there by claiming she was looking for him. On her way back, Del also finds Kendall and urges her to leave Anton and says, "Tell me something, Kendall, is the couple that gets revenge together, stay together?" He tells her there's "more to (her) than just grudges" and she wants to be with somebody who loves her for who she really is. When Kendall tentatively asks who that is, Del says it's not Anton. Kendall brings the leopard to Corvina but they discover it empty. Kendall suggests they forge the documents instead. They keep this scheme hidden from Anton. At the end of that month, Anton briefly returns to medicine to save Noah when Noah is targeted and shot during a drive-by shooting while he and Kendall bickered at the gas station where Anton works. Kendall is shell-shocked by the experience as Anton, after determining Kendall escaped the incident unscathed, treats her coldly while he comforts Julia. In March 1995,  Kendall develops a story with Corvina's help claiming Corvina and Dimitri were switched at birth, making Corvina, Anton, and (via marriage) Kendall, the heirs to Wildwind and schemes with Corvina to create document supposedly written by the midwife who delivered Corvina and Dimitri. However, after Kendall prevents Janet from going on a shooting rampage to get Amanda back, her friendship with Del continues to grow and he continuously attempts to persuade her from her revenge plots, urging Kendall to utilize her own goodness and that she can restart her life by legitimately using her talents. He tries to get her to see that her life with Anton has been miserable. Kendall is unhappy but denies Del's observation, though she admits she'd like to start over again. Kendall begins having second thoughts about the plot but Corvina convinces Kendall to go through with their plan, reminding her they need revenge on the Maricks. She notices the growing closeness between Del and Kendall. Though he berates Anton, who grows closer to Julia, for his neglectful treatment of Kendall, Del warns the Maricks that Kendall may be up to another scheme. Anton nearly breaks up with Kendall, gently telling her she can't be happy with the life they have together, but Kendall desperately circumvents this when she invites the Harts to come celebrate their marriage, and Anton makes himself continue the facade of a happy relationship with her.

In April 1995, as Kendall and Corvina plant the leopard containing the forgeries at Wildwind, Erica tells an exasperated Anton about Del's warning that Kendall is working on a new plot and wants to know what she's up to. Anton denies Kendall is plotting anything against Erica, irritably asking why Erica would believe "that idiot" (Del). Erica refers to Kendall's choice of friends ("Del Henry is (Kendall's) best friend in the entire world, in addition to Janet Green"), annoying Anton when she tells him Del knows Kendall well and understands her manipulative tendencies. Anton insists to Erica that Kendall has changed, informing her that Kendall has made up with the Harts and of their visit. Erica is happy to hear this and of the Harts' continued devotion to Kendall and says she has always admired the Harts but when she is unhappy over Kendall's treatment of them, Anton reminds Erica that they lied to Kendall the same way he was lied to. Erica explains Dimitri wants a reconciliation with him and cautions Anton to be aware of any potential plots. Anton insists again Kendall's not scheming anymore and, despite her suspicion that Kendall is up to something, Erica hopes Kendall has changed. Anton's doubts about Kendall's seemingly changed character continue to grow as, at Wildwind, the plot is nearly discovered when Dimitri catches Corvina but Kendall manages to hide away, unhappily listening as Dimitri unsuccessfully tries to convince Corvina to give up her allegiance to Kendall. Kendall plants the leopard containing the forgeries and avoids getting caught sneaking out of Wildwind. Del tries to dissuade Kendall from her plot again, telling her she’s pretty, smart, good, and could have a real life if she gave up her revenge plots. Confused, Kendall starts to give in but discovers he’s working on Erica’s TV show and becomes upset. She accuses Del of setting her up and trying to get her to trust him, saying that he is working for the woman who ruined her life. Del earnestly assures Kendall that neither he or her mother have it in for her, “Erica doesn’t hate you, she’s cut you off and that hurts like hell, I know, and I am sorry but you have got to let this go.” A tearful Kendall is unsettled but stubbornly insists she can’t give it up.

Kendall and a now nervous Corvina convince Anton to ask Dimitri to set up a dinner to "make peace" at Wildwind, secretly hoping this will further their plot, after Del tries once again to urge Kendall to drop the scheme he knows she's planning, saying she is also hurting herself by continuing to plot. Everyone agrees to the dinner under the guise of reconciliation. Noting the anger Kendall and Anton share at them, Corvina's jealousy, and Kendall’s cleverness, Dimitri and Erica set up the dinner with Kendall, Anton, and Corvina at Wildwind, in hopes it will uncover Kendall and Corvina's plot Del had warned them about and that Kendall and Anton will break up. Aware of the closeness between Del and Kendall and still believing Kendall is up to something, Erica solicits Del's help in getting Kendall to reveal her plan. Del agrees. Erica sets up a meeting between him and Kendall that night at Wildwind and leaves them alone on the terrace. Kendall refuses to admit to any plot at Del's questioning and Del urges her to “quit while (she’s) ahead,” trying to convince Kendall that she can drop her grudges and start over with him. Erica catches them kissing. Kendall is conflicted but maintains she has to stay with Anton. At dinner in front of Anton, Erica casually asks Kendall why she was kissing Del. Kendall freezes, freaks, and blames Erica. Anton is furious, wants to leave, insists he and Kendall were set up and they’re moving out of state as the Maricks try to settle them down but on their way out, a fight over the leopard ensues between Corvina and Erica. It breaks and the forged documents are discovered. Kendall and Corvina act surprised as it's read aloud but Dimitri and Erica are certain they are part of the Kendall's new plot that Del had warned them about, questioning how Corvina can instantly accept her life is a lie. Erica gets Kendall to immediately protest when she suggests they burn the letter. Despite Kendall's best efforts to cover, she is confronted by Dimitri about this being her latest revenge plot Del warned them when he said Kendall was up to something and Kendall becomes increasingly annoyed when she is lectured at by Erica and Dimitri that they know this is her scheme, with Edmund telling her "not to write down to her audience." As Kendall demands they stop lecturing her and asks how this could be her plot, Edmund mentions Kendall's use of an archaic phrase earlier that evening, explaining how Kendall and Anton are too young to have heard it otherwise. He says Kendall could only have learned this phrase from him when he used it in a conversation with Maria and Dimitri and suggests Kendall was listening in on them the night she was forced to hide away. Dimitri states this was the night he caught Corvina at Wildwind as Erica realizes how Kendall and Corvina planted the documents and asks Kendall where she was hiding in that room, ''"Behind the couch or behind the screen?" ''Kendall steadfastly denies her involvement and insists she's changed, telling a confused Anton the Maricks are twisting everything against them. However, Kendall angrily tells Dimitri that he wrecked Anton's life the same way Erica ruined her life as they were both lied to their entire lives, "Can't you for one lousy second consider how Anton- how I felt? How our lives were turned upside down? Those people you thought were your parents were really strangers?" Edmund summarizes Kendall's plot when he tells her this isn't about Anton but her identity crisis, "It's about you. It is always about you. Using Anton is just another axe to grind. Let me clear the air here, Erica didn't ruin your life anymore than Dimitri ruined Anton's. You came here with a secret, you were one up on us, that Erica was your mother. When you finally let us in on the secret, we tried to do everything we could to make you feel part of the family, make you feel welcome, and all anybody got was a lot of grief. Now this stupid message in the leopard is just another installment of that." Kendall pleads with Anton that the Maricks are lying and are the ones trying to manipulate them but Anton leaves. Dimitri reveals if Anton believes Kendall’s story, he’ll write him off for good.

The next day, Erica tries to recruit Del, who is surprised when he hears the details of the plot Kendall planted, because she needs his help with Kendall again to prove the documents are forgeries and show Anton that Kendall is using him so he reconciles with Dimitri. Del declines but ultimately agrees after he learns from Erica that Kendall accused her of paying Del to kiss Kendall. Kendall, meanwhile, is trying to urge Anton to believe the baby-switch story but Anton tests Kendall, saying it doesn't matter to him and only wants to move out of state with her and Corvina. Kendall fails his test, continually pushing him to accept the story and the repercussions to Dimitri and Erica. However, when Del explains Kendall's plot to Anton, Anton reveals he knows Kendall has made up the story but accuses Del of being paid off by the Maricks to break up his marriage, prompting Del to deny this and admit his feelings for Kendall. Corvina and Kendall plot their next move but later, Kendall quietly freaks out about what her life is turning into.

In case Del is unable to help the situation and discovering he knows nothing about Kendall's plot, Erica gets the documents checked out by her lawyer, sharing her suspicions about their authenticity and Kendall's scheme but learns from Jackson that the forged documents are plausible enough to merit a lengthy court case. She almost gets Corvina to confess when she berates Corvina for turning to Kendall and developing a scheme so Corvina can punish Dimitri as payback. Corvina defends Kendall, accusing Erica of hating her daughter but Erica clarifies that what she hates is what Kendall has become, that Kendall's wanting to hurt people, and as they argue over Kendall and Anton's anger/who is to blame, Erica denies Corvina’s claims that Kendall is love-starved/all Kendall gets from her is hate. Erica calls this “ridiculous”, saying Corvina knows these claims are ridiculous until she turned to Kendall as an ally and was convinced otherwise. Corvina’s defense of Kendall starts to waver when Erica explains the reason Kendall is so angry is because she didn't raise her, paralleling her choice to not raise Kendall with Corvina's choice to not raise Anton but says they gave Kendall and Anton to loving couples, explaining, “You and I, we made that choice not out of hate, not out of selfishness, but out of concern for the good of our children,” further breaking Corvina down when she guilts her for turning on Dimitri’s kindness out of jealousy that he did not return her love by scheming for revenge. Corvina still refuses to admit the truth but finally confesses the scheme and her part in it with Kendall to Anton when he demands the truth, explaining he knows the story is a ploy. Anton has Corvina admit the entire scheme to Dimitri and Erica and he reconciles with his father. The plan is completely disproven when the midwife who delivered Dimitri and Corvina is flown in from Hungary and denies the baby switch.

Returning to see Anton, Kendall furiously confronts Del about telling Erica and Dimitri that she was up to a new plot. After Anton plays Kendall into making her believe he’s accepted the story, Kendall tries and fails to get a lawyer. Instead, she is given several warnings to drop the plot by Noah, referring to her as "Bambi," and his sister, Belinda. Kendall desperately attempts to sell the story of the baby-switch to several magazines in town but it is rejected. An unhappy Kendall ignores them and is caught trying to pass the story to a new reporter at Tempo by Brooke, who already once lectured Kendall about her lies to Erica and half the town, including her false accusation against Dimitri making it harder for actual rape victims to be believed back when Adam hired Kendall to be her personal assistant the previous year. Failing to sell the story to Brooke, Kendall insists it is true and she'll be sorry for refusing to print it. Brooke calls Kendall pathological and the story a "flagrant lie". When Kendall says she'll take the story elsewhere if she's not interested, Brooke tells her, "I'm fascinated. I used to think you lied to be creative. Now I realize you lie because you can't help yourself." Brooke continues lecturing Kendall to stop wasting herself on revenge and to figure out what she is doing with her life because she won't be a kid forever and tells Kendall she knows this story is to get back at Erica. Holding back tears, Kendall insists Erica hurt her and tells Brooke, “I was supposed to be somebody special,” but Erica “cheated (her)” by giving her away, taking everything away from her, “I had a rich and famous mother who pawned me off because I was inconvenient.” Brooke reminds Kendall that Erica wasn’t able to take care of her when she was born so she gave her to parents who could, giving her a better life than many; she tells Kendall she was raised with love and had parents, “that (she was) the sun and the stars to, that (she was) the most precious gift in the world.” Brooke explains to Kendall she doesn’t know what pain is until somebody she loves dies. When Kendall tries to dismiss Brooke, Brooke cites Kendall's lack of goals/friends and advises her to turn her life around. Kendall says she has a husband unlike Brooke, but Brooke warns her that Anton only tolerates her and she won't have him for long due to her actions because Kendall is her “own worst enemy.” Kendall is silent when Brooke tells her she is not stupid or boring but warns her against keeping up her destructive behavior, urging her change her life for the better and give up her scheme. Kendall listens but miserably ignores Brooke's words as well and determinedly continues her plot. Del interrupts her pitch to a tabloid magazine, tells the reporter Kendall's story is a lie, and proceeds to try and save Kendall from herself again but Kendall refuses. Anton comes back to Wildwind and, furious with Kendall, wants to make her pay. Dimitri and Erica talk him down from this, relieved Kendall's plot failed, but when Del calls Dimitri after failing to convince Kendall off her scheme and explains Kendall is trying to sell out the story to magazines, Dimitri suggests they "teach Kendall a lesson she won't forget." A suddenly absolved Corvina, Anton, the Maricks and Erica, with Jackson's help, trick an initially delighted Kendall, who believes this is the second time her lies were the truth, into signing annulment papers under the guise of signing documents that would make Anton and herself owners of Wildwind. A distraught Kendall is told about the trick and she rips up the papers, but when she is presented with copies of the signed version, she threatens to sue for entrapment. Kendall's threats are dismissed by the entire room and realizing she has no recourse, runs from the house in tears when a torn Anton leaves her due to her continual scheming.

Kendall is devastated and initially wants payback against the Erica, Anton, and the Maricks, crying she just wants to be accepted and have their approval. Del talks her down and comforts a sobbing Kendall all night, falling asleep in a chair. When The Intruder, a tabloid magazine, calls Kendall for dirt on Dimitri and Erica in exchange for $3000, she is tempted but ultimately declines the offer. She then decides to grant Anton the annulment without contest. However, Kendall irritably refuses to give up Janet when investigators come looking for her after Janet embarks on a mission to get Amanda. After snarking at them for a bit, Del reminds Kendall that Janet may lose it again and kill people so Kendall reluctantly reveals that Janet followed Trevor to Canada. She and Del fall in love in May 1995. He helps Kendall to rebuild her life and let go of her anger against Erica and the Harts. She attempts to move on in Pine Valley but now finds herself with few friends. Kendall is upset to learn about Erica's accident when she falls from a catwalk and rushes to the hospital to discreetly make sure her mother is alright. She freaks out when Erica isn't in her room and starts to cry, believing this means her mother died, but is relieved to learn from Noah that Erica is fine and has just gone for a MRI after he finds her in tears in Erica's room. He tries to call her out on her tears and Kendall defensively explains she just wanted to make sure for herself Erica was fine because Erica "is still (her) mother and, whether (they) like it or not, (they) are connected." They snark at each other (Kendall: "You, an orderly? You, up to your dreads in bed pans, how very perfect." Noah: "Shedding tears over your mama ain't dulled your fork tongue.") but Noah realizes Kendall actually cares about Erica. He asks her why she tried to make her mother's life miserable but Kendall can't answer, having him promise not to tell Erica how upset she was or tell anyone she was there. She surprises Noah when, after starting to engage in an argument with Julia, lets Julia rail on her a bit before quietly leaving the hospital with Del.

Later that month, Kendall is distraught to witness the supposed death of Janet after preventing Janet from going on a shooting rampage at Trevor's wedding to his new fiancé, Laurel. Reluctantly attending the wedding with Del at Del's behest after he fails to buy her excuses of a fake fever and pretending she doesn't have enough suitable dresses for a wedding, Kendall becomes overwhelmed and goes to the basement where she finds Janet. Del searches for Kendall but when he can’t find her, assumes she has left. Kendall learns Janet is planning go on a shooting rampage to get her daughter, Amanda, back and begs her not to hurt anybody. Janet tries to convince Kendall to leave the church before it’s too late. When Kendall won’t allow Janet to shoot everyone up, Janet apologetically knocks her unconscious and ties her up. When Kendall wakes up and finally gets free, she searches for Janet but is horrified to see her apparently struck by lightning and believes Janet is dead. Shaken, she tries to tell everyone at the wedding what happened but finds few in Pine Valley are willing to believe her, Kendall being hurt when Del asks if she is lying, until Kendall passes a lie detector test. Kendall is saddened to find herself one of the few to mourn Janet’s death. In June 1995, Kendall continues to work with Del to figure out her life but when he asks her to marry him, she turns him down because she needs to explore her life first. They continue their relationship as is. She is forced to wait upon Dimitri and Bianca at McKay's. While Bianca is rude to her, Kendall restrains herself, apologizes to Bianca, and remains cordial. Dimitri is amenable to her efforts and responds to Kendall's worries about Erica's accident, updating her on her mother's condition. Kendall reconnects with her mother, Alice, after she is devastated to learn that her adoptive father died suddenly from heart complications. She attends the funeral with Alice and Del and as she looks around her childhood home full of her own photos, wonders why she never felt lucky with her parents. Kendall feels guilty for not being appreciative of her parents and failing to show them how much she really cared about them, recounting a story in which Alice gave her a new pink bicycle for her 8th birthday but Kendall wanted a racing bike so she threw an Erica-esque tantrum, screaming as she kicked the pink bike over, after which she is sternly lectured by Bill, who is the first in a line-up of people (that would later include Erica, Anton, Del, etc.) to tell Kendall that the world does not revolve around her. However, Kendall remembers how her parents adored her but she was embarrassed by them, feeling like she didn't fit. Explaining to Del how reliable Alice has always been with her, Kendall wants to take care of her mother and asks Alice to live in Pine Valley with her but Alice refuses to leave her home in Florida. Kendall and Del return to their home in Pine Valley where Kendall continues to worry and decides to return to Florida to take care of Alice after learning about her medical problems. Del asks to come with her. Kendall writes Erica a letter, who receives it with instant skepticism but finds herself unable to dismiss her daughter's letter. As Erica reads it, she flashes back to moments, both good and bad, in her history with Kendall. Kendall apologizes in the letter for her activities and explains she wanted Erica's love and her attention, good or bad, which was why she did "so many despicable things." She tells Erica that she was "blessed from the day (she) was born," admits she didn't appreciate how much the Harts loved her and that it took "two years of hell and a sudden death to wake (her) up." Kendall accepts she was given up for adoption in an "act of love, not cruelty," and thanks Erica for giving her life and the life she had with the Harts, Erica flashing back to moments in her history with Kendall, some of which included her angry confrontation with the Harts over their keeping Kendall's adoption a secret (from Kendall) but during which she saw how much they love Kendall, her heated altercation with Kendall at the boutique, and happily being with Kendall and Bianca the morning of her wedding when she styled them and changed their dresses. Kendall wonders if Erica heard the same voice when she was Kendall's age driving her own determination in life and finishes by saying, "Even though we're not together, whatever I am, whatever I will be, I owe to you. Be happy, Erica. I am, finally. Love, Kendall." Erica is affected by Kendall's letter but is conflicted. She admits to Dimitri that, despite Kendall's latest scheme, Kendall nearly "got to (her)" again with the letter but is suspicious Kendall wants to make her feel guilty some more. Dimitri counsels her that he believes Kendall is sincere this time. She decides to see her daughter before she leaves when Myrtle reminds her of Mona and Mona's wish for them to be reconciled.

Kendall leaves on good terms with several Pine Valley residents, accepted as Del's girlfriend by his sister and brother-in-law, Dixie Coonie and Tad Martin. She shares a good-bye with Myrtle and Anton. Myrtle tells Kendall that Mona loved her and Kendall says she loved her too. Though Kendall and Anton agree their relationship was damaging, they thank each other for being there when they needed it and wish each other well. As Del packs up their stuff, Erica manages to catch Kendall before she leaves, telling her to wait. Learning Erica read her letter, Kendall said she needed to apologize and nervously asks if she's is angry. Erica considers this and tells her she has many feelings about Kendall and, while anger is also one of them, she wants to talk. Looking around at the barely adequate state of Kendall's motel room, Erica is unhappy to realize this was Kendall's home for months but Kendall, though trying to brush it off, says she deserved it for what she did and concedes it wasn't easy. When Erica has Kendall confirm that she wrote her letter herself, Kendall saying Del never saw it, Kendall is disappointed when Erica admits her initial skepticism of her letter and that she tore it in half before reading it but assures her, "Just in half, Kendall, not into tiny little pieces that could never be put together again because something in my heart just told me I should read it," and believes Kendall was being sincere despite her "layers of anger and hostility." She and Kendall make peace and Kendall apologizes again. They talk about her letter, appreciating Alice, etc. and when Kendall says she's not asking for Erica to forget what she did but hopes that she can forgive her someday for the harm she has caused, Erica tells her that "of course (she) can accept (Kendall's) apology and of course, (she) can forgive (her)". Kendall is grateful and explains that she knows Erica gave her so many chances but she could only think of her pain and didn't consider why Erica did what she did or how it made her feel, "I did you such an injustice." Erica tells Kendall she is sorry about her father, Bill, and when Kendall explains her regrets over not being with her father when he died, Erica explains they share that similarity because she felt the same way Kendall does when her mother died. After telling Kendall, who is sorry for disappointing Mona (Erica: "Oh, I disappointed her all the time. She always had to forgive me"), that Mona would want Kendall to be happy, Erica remembers Mona, herself, Kendall, and Bianca together on the morning of her wedding to Dimitri and gives Kendall a ring that once belonged to her mother, explaining she wants her to have it and so would Mona, telling her a story associated with the ring. Kendall says she'll think of them both whenever she wears it and when they agree to say good-bye, Erica wants Kendall to take care of herself and "listen to that voice inside (her) that says 'be good.'" Kendall swears she will. Before she leaves, Erica hugs Kendall and tells her she wants her to be happy. Kendall promises, swearing she'll never take Alice for granted again and is grateful for what Erica did for her. Erica reveals to Dimitri that she "feels relieved, but (she) also feels very sad" over Kendall's departure. Amazed, Kendall tells Del, "My mother forgives me," and says he made what she shared with her mother possible. She reflects, "I learned a lot in this town. I lost a lot too but what I found more than makes up for it." She bids a tearful,"Good-bye Pine Valley," before returning to Florida with Del.

2002-
2002-

In 2002, Kendall's character was finally recast with actress Alicia Minishew and the character's birth date was revised back to September 25, 1976. Erica goes on trial for the murder of Frankie Stone, Bianca’s girlfriend. Needing someone to help incriminate her, Erica calls in Kendall, half-hoping Kendall will not implicate her on the stand and that she has changed after all. On January 7, 2002, a newly embittered Kendall, who has since amicably split from Del, returns to Pine Valley to aid the prosecution in charging Erica with murder. While she continued to go back and forth with her difficult mother, Kendall and Erica were reconciled for good approximately 1.5 to 2 years after her return and developed a deeply loving mother-daughter relationship. Largely, the character had reformed and reconciled with her family, including the formation of a very close relationship with her half-sister, Bianca. Kendall was eventually written as a heroine, though her devious characteristics were kept still intact.

Gellar guested in the 2011 series finale opposite a longtime friend from her initial tenure on All My Children, Eva LaRue. She played a delusional mental patient who saw vampires and believed herself to be the daughter of Erica; nods to both of her most famous TV roles, Kendall Hart and Buffy Summers.

Trivia

 * Because of her work as the self-absorbed Kendall Hart and light complexion with dark hair, Joss Whedon initially considered Gellar for the role of Cordelia Chase when she auditioned for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  (Sullivan, Michelle. Buffy's Paintstaking Audition. 'TV Guide.' 1998)
 * In a 1999 interview with the The Chicago Tribune, Roger Kumble, writer and director of the 1999 film, Cruel Intentions, revealed he wanted Gellar in the lead role of Kathryn Merteuil based on her work as Kendall Hart.
 * Rudolph Martin, the actor who played Kendall's once-gullible husband, Anton Lang, later starred as Dracula in both a TV-miniseries and in the 2000 fifth season opener of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
 * Gellar briefly worked with Lauren E. Roman, who played teenaged runaway Laura Kirk, on All My Children. They would work together again in the 1999 Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, "Earshot", in which Roman played Buffy's neurotically overachieving high school classmate, Nancy Doyle.
 * Michelle Trachtenberg portrayed Dawn on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and also played Lily Benton Montgomery on All My Children from 1993 to 1996. Though her tenure overlapped with Gellar's time on All My Children, the two characters didn't interact.
 * In an effort to keep Kendall’s storyline unspoiled, producers kept details of the role concealed and neither Alicia Minshew (Kendall Hart, 2002-2013) or Gellar were aware of the character’s true identity when they auditioned for the role. After Gellar screen-tested with Lucci in 1993 and Minshew screen-tested with Josh Duhamel (ex-Leo Dupres) in 2001 for the role respectively, each actress was then told they were being cast as Erica’s oldest daughter, Kendall.
 * In 2012, Minshew interviewed that she received a basket of flowers, cakes and cookies from Gellar with "a note saying that Kendall was a great role and for me to have fun playing her". The two met on All My Children's set a year after Minshew's time in the role while Gellar was visiting friends. Minshew describes, "We just gave each other a big hug and she said I was doing a great job."  (Kirchgassner, Robert. Interview with Alicia Minshew. 'The Celebrity Cafe.' 2012)
 * In an 2010 interview with Michael Fairman, Minshew reveals she has "always loved the relationship between Kendall and Erica, even before I played her. I liked the dynamics between Sarah Michelle Gellar (ex-Kendall) and Susan."
 * Gellar stated in multiple interviews that she grew up watching All My Children and continued to watch the show after she left the role of Kendall Hart, explaining, "I still watch the soap every day!" in a September 2002 Soap Opera Digest cover feature.