It was a few weeks before Christmas and the Hardys were doing their annual Christmas shopping. Frank and Nancy Hardy, who had been married for almost 5 years and their adorable 3-year-old daughter, Chloe Hardy, were meeting Frank's brother Joe and his wife Vanessa for lunch at the mall.

"I just love this atmosphere. The giggling children, the shy couples, and the smell of Christmas cookies. Don't you?" said Nancy while glancing at Frank.

"Yeah, it gives everyone a chance to just be free of responsibilities for awhile," sighed Frank while simultaneously glancing down at the three year old holding his hand and staring at all of the decorations, completely awed.

The happy trio was on their way to the food court where Joe and Vanessa were already waiting for them. In fact, Frank could see Joe's blonde hair from where he was standing. As they were making their way there, Chloe's wandering eyes fell on a stuffed unicorn that was sitting in the window of a toy store. Her eyes lit up.

"Daddy," she said excitedly while tugging on Frank's hand, "can I get the pwetty unicorn?" pointing to the toy in the window.

Frank and Nancy looked at each other. Frank looked ready to give in to the puppy eyes that Chloe had mastered while Nancy was clearly against the idea of getting another toy for her, mainly due to the fact that their shopping bags mainly consisted of similar toys.

Nancy looked down at the little girl and gently said "Sweetie you already have so many toys and you will probably get a lot more from Santa Claus."

"But mommy, I really want the unicorn. It's pink and purple and sparkly and we can be best friends," Chloe whined.

Nancy was about to say something but Frank beat her to it.

"Alright sunshine, let's go get that unicorn." Frank said, smiling at the cuteness of his little girl.

Nancy rolled her eyes but was smiling because she knew that Frank didn't have the heart to say no to his little princess. Chloe was after all a daddy's girl.

They decided that Frank and Chloe would go into the store to get the unicorn and Nancy would go on over to the food court and meet up with Joe and Vanessa.

As Frank walked into the store, hand in hand with Chloe, he noticed that there were only two other customers and the salesman in the store. This somewhat surprised him but he figured it was only because of the fact that this was a much smaller store in comparison to the others.

Chloe picked out the unicorn she wanted and ran back to Frank jumping up and down, holding the unicorn to her chest.

"Look daddy, isn't is pwetty?"

Frank just smiled at her cuteness and nodded in agreement.

"I'm gonna name her Rainbow!" Chloe exclaimed jumping with excitement.

"That's great Sunshine. Make sure you don't drop it." Frank called as Chloe bounded around the rest of the store while talking to her unicorn.

Everything seemed perfect at that moment. But perfection never seems to last for the Hardys.

Just as Frank was about to hand the money to the salesman, he felt the cold barrel of a gun on his neck.

"Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head," said a menacing voice.

As Frank kneeled down, he realized that the two customers in the store were actually the ones holding the guns. One was holding him and the salesman at gunpoint and the other one dragged a frightened Chloe over to Frank.

"Daddy!" Chloe cried

"Don't worry baby, daddy's here," Frank said as Chloe landed next to him.

"Get that kid to shut up or I'll do it myself," one of the masked men said.

The one to hold Frank at gunpoint crouched down to Chloe's height and tried to grab the unicorn that she was clutching to her chest.

"No, it's mine!" Chloe cried indignantly, biting the gunman's hand.

"Stupid brat." The masked man slapped Chloe away and she fell back. This made Frank seethe with rage.

No one hurt his baby girl. Before he could clearly think, he had tackled the man and was holding him down by the neck and threw blind punches into his face.

What he did forget however was that his partner was armed and suddenly, Frank felt a sharp pain in his back, shoulder, and side. After that, all he heard was Chloe's bloodcurdling scream.

"DADDY!"

The two gunmen ran off as soon as the first one got out from under Frank.

Chloe ran over to Frank and kept talking to him, trying to make him get up. As a three-year-old, the sound of gunfire and the sight of blood truly terrified her.

"Go…t-to…m-m-mommy, hu-hurry." Frank gasped out in pain.

Chloe ran to the food court as fast as she could on her tiny legs. She caught sight of her Uncle Joe at the table and ran over to him.

"Uncle Joe Uncle Joe, daddy hurt daddy hurt," sobbed Chloe.

"Wait what do you mean sweetie?"

By then, Nancy and Vanessa also joined them.

"Chloe what's wrong? Where is daddy?" Nancy asked frantically.

Chloe was sobbing her eyes out so it was hard for her to form coherent words so she simply grabbed her mommy's hand and dragged her to the store. Joe and Vanessa were fast on their heels.

When they entered the store, Nancy's heart dropped.

On the floor was a pale and unconscious Frank, covered in blood with a large pool of blood surrounding him.

"FRANK!"

She quickly knelt down next to him and checked for a pulse. She found one but it was very faint.

"Frank wake up please Frank. Stay with me ok? Please stay with me." Nancy sobbed. She was dimly aware of Joe kneeling down next to her and was using his jacket to try and stop the blood flow. He yelled at Vanessa to take Chloe away and call an ambulance.

"Don't worry Frank, you'll be ok. Help is coming. Just please stay with me." Nancy begged.

Distantly, Nancy could here the sirens of the ambulance approaching. She just continued to hold Frank's hand and prayed for him to be okay.