I’m in love with someone I shouldn’t be in love with

Hi, I’m a 21 year old girl with little to no experience with relationships. My mom remarried 8 years ago after divorcing my dad and now has a 7 year old daughter (my sister) with my step father. My step father too has been married before and has an older son ( my stepbrother).

My stepbrother is two years younger than me and I’ve never met him until June last year (2023). We’ve been good friends ever since and soon our friendship escalated to something more. We both tried to resist it as we are both aware that it will complicate things within the family.

We started dating secretly in October 2023, he was my first ever kiss and now we are both very much in love and he visits me almost everyday of the week and we hangout and do a little bit of intimate things here and there, although I have no privacy so we both always try to act like friends.

My mother is a very strict person every since I was very little she was a very controlling person and I was not allowed to date anyone.

so my mom has found out about my relationship and is now full on threatening me with everything she has, I understand that I’m at fault here but I’m in love with him and he is with me, I love and care for him but my mother is emotionally draining me with her constant threats and awful name calling, she threatened me saying next time she won’t be using words anymore.

I am so lost at the moment but I’m trying to hold myself together, please advice me on this