I truly like how you made the reason for Ramu making up the story about Miu and Sudha being dead and the reason for them to have the need to run away in the first place quite believe. In fact not only did you incorporate the reason for the child marriage and subsequently the reason for mother and daughter to run away but you also took care of the issue of why Ramu lied about them being dead, the reason behind the bellman's paralysis and subsequent reason for Kalki to blame everything on Miu and despise Sudha. Plus you managed to exonerate everyone in the process except for the draconian (love that description of him by the way) Sarpanch and the unfortunately backward thinking villagers (whom I guess we can't really blame because of their ignorance).
Absolutely fantastic and I really can't see why you didn't like it! I think the CV's should be "borrowing a chapter or two, oh heck who am I kidding, they might as well "borrow" the whole thing from you.
P.S. Thanks for the PM, truly looking forward to the next installment of "When the Tide Turned".
Waiting impatiently (I mean patiently😆)
Yours truly,
Parm