"Friends tell me that things will settle down, and that I will meet somebody," said Dr. Alexander Aronov. "But I don't think it will happen. I'm just going to be with my family. I don't need to create another one.

"I don't think I'm actually going to remarry," Aronov said.

The 45-year-old East Side oncologist spoke for the first time since burying his wife last month, telling the Daily News in an exclusive interview that the agonizing loss has taken its toll on him.

Svetlana Aronov, 44, vanished four months ago while walking her father's dog near her York Ave. apartment building. Her disappearance in broad daylight sent chills throughout the city.

The rare book dealer's body surfaced in the East River near Long Island City, Queens, on May 6. The dog has not been found. The city medical examiner's office determined that she drowned.

Detectives have kept the bizarre case open but don't know if they are dealing with a homicide, suicide or an accident. "They don't have much to go on at this time," said an NYPD spokeswoman.

Alexander Aronov, once a suspect in his wife's disappearance, also doesn't have a clue.

"I'm just as confused as everybody else," he said in his lawyer's office yesterday.

The soft-spoken man sought legal representation a week after his wife disappeared March 3.

He dropped 25 pounds while waiting to learn her fate and being scrutinized by police and the media, which questioned alleged love affairs involving both him and his wife.

"It was so many years ago. It was so irrelevant," he said when asked about the infidelities.

He professed his love for his wife, whom he married 25 years ago while they lived in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, in the former Soviet Union.

The refugee couple fled to Canada before settling in New York, where they lived comfortable lives with daughters Polina, now 23, and Veronica, 9. The family split their time between their East Side apartment and a weekend home in Southampton, L.I.

Aronov said he has since lost his taste for the high life.

"I don't even go out anymore. I just shuttle between work and home," he said. "I used to like good food, good wine. I've totally lost interest in those things."

He has decided to close the Brooklyn office his wife managed for him and has turned down invitations to stay with friends in Europe.

Happiness has come in small measures, including a recent outing with his daughters to see the animated film "Finding Nemo."

Daily meditation and weekend trips to the cemetery where his wife is buried in Southampton also have helped. But her death remains an open wound, he said.

"Sometimes I think of how it would have been if Svetlana had died in a car accident, or from an illness. How would I feel? Would I have acted differently?" Aronov said with tears in his eyes.

"Of course, I do not have the answer, but it would have been better in terms of closure."

Originally published on July 1, 2003